Code Lyoko: The Next Phase
by LanChest958
Summary: After the group defeated XANA everything seemed peaceful for a time. However a few months later a new year starts at Kadic and mysterious events are popping up left and right. Is it the work of XANA, or are these merely coincidences? And just how does the new kid, Zhane, fit into it all?
1. Slight Delay

Chapter 1

A young man jerked awake at the back of a semi-crowded plane, blinking his eyes in confusion. His confusion quickly turned into irritation when he noticed that the plane hadn't taken off yet. After almost an hour's worth of delays he was starting to get fed up. "Can't this thing take off already?" he muttered under his breath. He knew he should probably at least attempt to make friends with the other people his age on the plane, but with his medium length black hair, black tee-shirt, jeans, and black sneakers he probably seemed off putting. Or at least that's how he viewed it. He popped one of his ear buds out of his ears in an attempt to listen at what was going on around him.

Not much had changed during his nap time. Most of the passengers were already seated and prepared for take-off, with very few, if any, still boarding the plane. One girl, possibly around his age from the sound of the voice, was in absolute hysterics a few moments ago, but appeared to have calmed down by now. He briefly glanced out the window, but it only gave him a view of the side of the airport. Just then he heard someone's voice from the aisle to his right.

"Is this seat taken?" the voice asked him. Realizing the question was directed towards him he turned to the aisle. The person who asked him was...unique, to say the least. He was clad in full purple attire, sporting a purple backpack, and had blonde hair behind him, straight like an arrow with a purple splotch in the middle. He was pointing to the seat next to the young man, wondering if it was taken or not.

The young man shook his head and said "Feel free to sit there if you want." The purple man smiled at this and sat down next to him.

He offered his hand and said "I'm Odd, who are you?"

The young man blinked a few times before asking "Is that really your name? It's a bit too... fitting."

'Odd' appeared to find this funny and started laughing. "Yeah, I get that all the time." he stated.

"Well then." the young man stated deadpan. "My name is Zhane, since you were wondering." Seeing how Odd's hand was still outstretched and waiting a handshake Zhane stuck out his hand and shook hands with Odd. "Where are you headed Odd?" he asked.

"Ahh." Odd started. "Where I'm going is the land of the mysterious, a place where many strange occurrences happen, yet seemingly overnight everyone forgets about them." he said in a mysterious voice. Zhane stared at him blankly for a moment before Odd burst out laughing again. "I'm just kidding. I'm headed to Kadic Academy."

Zhane nodded. "I'm going there too, it'll be my first year there actually."

Odd put his one of his arms around Zhane's shoulder and sweeped his other arm in front of him in a grand motion. "Then I take it upon myself to be your guide! I shall teach you everything I know, and some things I don't know too!" he proclaimed in a loud voice.

Zhane quickly threw Odd's arm off him and shushed him as other passengers were starting to stare. Just then the captains voice came over the intercom declaring that they were ready for takeoff, and going through all the standard procedures. While Zhane was pretending to listen Odd tapped his shoulder.

"Mind trading me seats?" he whispered to Zhane. Zhane started to shake his head but Odd just proclaimed that he wanted the window seat again. Seeing as how Odd wouldn't relent Zhane took out a coin and said that whoever won a coin toss would get the window seat. "Tails never fails!" declared Odd, leaving Zhane with heads. Zhane flicked the coin into the air and let it land on the arm rest between him and Odd. It landed on heads. With a smirk Zhane pocketed his coin, put his ear bud back in, and started to drift back to sleep in preparation for the long flight.

* * *

 **AN: So, there's the first chapter of this fic. Now this is my first fic so constructive criticism would be appreciated. Unless specified elsewhere the Lyoko Warriors and other characters will be wearing there normal outfits, which will just be paraphrased to something, like with Odd here. Now the chapters will be getting longer later, I can guarantee that. What I cannot guarantee is when updates will be, but if I were a betting man I'd say a safe bet if once a week. Remember to read and review please!**


	2. Destination:Kadic

Chapter 2

 _All Zhane could hear was the sounds of battle around him. Blades crashing against blades, bodies, and ground. Energy blasts flying left and right, with no distinction between friend and foe. All that Zhane had was a black blade in his hand, but it was all he needed. All that mattered was that he protected the person behind him, even though he could never remember meeting her. For a split second Zhane turned his head around to glimpse her, but before he could get a proper look he heard someone shout his name._

"Zhane!" it called again. Zhane awoke with a start, before realizing he was on the plane, and the battle was merely a dream. Zhane looked to the source of the noise and discovered it was Odd that was shouting his name. Pausing his music and popping out his ear buds Zhane asked Odd why he was shouting.

"We've landed and you didn't look like you were gonna wake up soon." Odd said innocently. "By the way, did anyone ever tell you that you sleep too much?" Zhane snorted at this, even though he did sleep for over half the flight. Zhane made sure that he still had what few carry-on items he brought with him before he disembarked the plane with Odd.

"So..." Zhane started. "You have any idea if we're being transported to Kadic or what?" He asked Odd.

Odd checked his phone briefly before answering. "Oh yeah! Almost forgot you were new here for a second." Zhane merely stared at Odd for a moment before Odd decided to continue. "One of the staff will be providing transportation, and I'm willing to bet it's Jim. He'll be wearing a red track suit with a band-aid on his face, you can't miss him." Zhane gave Odd a brief thanks before going off to find his luggage with Odd not far behind him. After retrieving their luggage they briefly wandered the airport searching for Jim before finding him near the entrance.

True to Odd's word he was wearing a red track suit and had a band-aid on his face. Zhane briefly wondered if there was an actual reason he had a band-aid or if he thought it made him look tough. Zhane shook his head at the thought, it didn't really matter to him either way.

Upon the pair of boys reaching him Jim took out a small clipboard from behind him. "I already know you Della Robbia." he said looking at Odd. "So who are you then young man?" he asked Zhane.

"My name is Zhane Dolor, and this will be first year attending Kadic." Zhane responded pulling out an ID card from his pocket. Jim inspected the ID for a moment before marking something on his clipboard.

"Now then, I trust both of you boys have all of your luggage? I don't want to come back here because you forgot anything, I'm not a taxi driver anymore." Jim stated to both of them.

"We already have our luggage." Zhane said, "Are you saying that you used to be a taxi driver?" he asked, mildly curious.

Jim quickly realized what he had said before stating "Well yes, but I'd rather not talk about." Jim cleared his throat before continuing. "In any case, after the rest of the arrivals get here with their luggage we will be boarding the bus and heading to Kadic Academy, so try not to wander too far between then and now." Seeing that the conversation was over Zhane put his ear buds back into his ears and turned his music back on, leaning against a wall as he did so.

"What are you even listening to?" Odd asked Zhane as he sat on the floor.

"Not really sure." Zhane shrugged. "This MP3 player isn't even mine, it's a gift from a friend so I have no idea what's on here."

"You like it that much even though you have no idea what it is?" Odd questioned looking at Zhane confused. Zhane sighed.

"There's more to it than that, and that's all I'm saying on the subject for now." Zhane said before closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

After a little more than a half hour the rest of the students had gotten all of their belongings and congregated around Jim. Jim looked at his clipboard once, and checked again for good measure before declaring that they will be boarding the bus outside. Zhane and Odd had gotten onto the bus first and Zhane chose to sit in the very back taking the window seat.

"Hey Zhane." Odd tapped him on the shoulder making him pop out his ear buds "You mind letting me have the window seat this time maybe?" Odd asked him.

"Let's coin flip for it again if you want it." Zhane responded taking out a coin. Zhane declared heads leaving Odd stuck with tails. Zhane flipped the coin in the air and it landed in the palm of his hand with the heads side upright. Zhane pocketed the coin once more. "Guess I win again, the Goddess of Victory shines upon me today." Zhane said to himself with a slight chuckle.

"How did it land on heads yet again? Did you rig it Zhane?" Odd asked staring at Zhane confusedly.

Zhane sighed and shook his head before stating "It's not impossible for a coin to land twice the same Odd. Surely even you know that." Zhane put his ear bud back into his ear and looked out the window. Within the next five minutes the bus started rolling along, taking them to Kadic. The town seemed all right to Zhane. It wasn't too large to be overbearing and it wasn't too small to be a country village. The only part that really stuck out to Zhane was a large building across a bridge that he briefly saw.

Tapping Odd's shoulder Zhane asked "Exactly what is that building?" gesturing towards the large one across the bridge.

"It's the abandoned factory. I wouldn't think about going there if I were you." Odd warned. "I have a friend who went there to find some spare parts and it nearly got him killed."

Zhane's eyes lit up. "Now you just made me want to explore it even more buddy boy."

Odd stared at him for a moment before shaking his head and shrugging. "If you wind up missing and limbs don't blame me for it."

Zhane shook his head. As if he would ever be that careless. Making a mental note of where the factory was Zhane vowed the explore it one day. The danger only made it more entertaining for him, he loved a challenge, and wouldn't back down from it. That would have to be another day however, as they were pulling up to Kadic Academy.

* * *

 **AN: It turns out the safe bet was not the correct bet, as it always is in hindsight. I'm going to blame it on all the E3 hype going on that this came out a week late (and if you could ignore the fact that that wouldn't impair me doing anything last week that would be great.). Read and review please, and if you have any questions or comments feel free to share them!**


	3. Arrival

Chapter 3

Zhane and Odd hopped off the bus and gathered around Jim with the other students. "Now that we've arrived at Kadic the new students and the old students will be splitting into two groups." Jim stated. "The new students are going to get a run-down on what life is like here and the old students, well you know what to do. Now go!" he barked ushering them away.

"Guess this is where we split for now. Let's try to meet up later, I'll introduce you to some of my friends then." Odd said to Zhane as we was leaving. Zhane just sighed and shook his head, starting to wonder what he had gotten himself into already. Resigning himself to his future fate he directed his attention towards Jim, who had just about started to give his speech.

"Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering what your schedules are going to be looking like for the upcoming year, and I'm here to give you the basic information you need." Jim began. "Breakfast will begin every day starting at 7AM and ending at 8AM, so wake up early enough to arrive if you plan on eating. At around 8:15 your classes for that day will begin. You will be let out for lunch from 12:30 to 1:00 and then return to your classes until they are finished at around 3:40. From the time classes begin to 4:30 you are not allowed to be in your rooms unless you have express permission to do so. Dinner begins at 6:30 and ends at 7:30 and you are expected to stay in your rooms and sleep after 10PM. Don't even think of trying to sneak around after hours, because if you do you'll get caught by me, and you will not enjoy it. Now, if you head to the office you'll receive your class schedules and dorm assignments." Jim pointed to a room at the end of a hallway to his left upon finishing his speech, indicating that that was the office.

All the students poured down the hallway attempting to get there first, which only resulted in a large pileup near the front. Zhane lagged behind seeing how it was going to be awhile before he got his chance to get his information. Sighing Zhane leaned against a wall, popped in one of his ear-buds and looked around. The school wasn't too bad looking, at least in Zhane's opinion. There was a courtyard filled with benches and some shrubbery with a forest not too far in the distance, one that Zhane fully intended to explore at a later date. Not too many students were hanging out in the courtyard, what with it still being fairly early and summer, but there was a group of four students hanging around a bench.

Two of the students were sitting on the bench, one student was standing in front of the bench, and the final one was leaning forwards across the back of the bench. The kid closest to Zhane was a blonde male wearing glasses doing something on his laptop while keeping conversation with the others. The girl sitting next to him, oddly enough, had pink hair and an outfit to match. The girl standing in front of them seemed to be of Asian descent and was wearing all black. The boy leaning across the back of the bench had brown hair and was wearing a green jacket and undershirt.

The group seemed to be listening to something the girl in black was saying, possible a story from her summer vacation. After a few minutes of watching them they turned around as if they heard something. Not a moment later Odd came rushing out of a nearby door and ran up to them. When he got up to them he wrapped his arms around the two on the bench and said something that made the group laugh. After their laughter died down the girl in pink looked in Zhane's direction, prompting him to avert his gaze.

"So I guess those are his friends." Zhane muttered to himself. "They seem unique enough." Looking down the hall to the office Zhane saw that a fair amount of the people had already gone through and gotten their information. Zhane sighed and popped out his ear-buds heading down the hallway only having to wait in line before four other students. When it was finally his turn Zhane presented the secretary with his ID and waited for a moment.

"Here is your class schedule and dorm assignment Zhane." the secretary stated handing him two sheets of paper and a key. "You're one of the few students who get a room to themselves, so I hope you enjoy it."

Zhane smiled halfheartedly before heading off to his room to drop off his belongings. Since he didn't have too much with him this didn't take long, so Zhane left his room in search of something to do before it was time to head off to dinner. He walked back to the courtyard and sat up against a pillar with his eyes closed, trying to relax. It didn't take too long before he accidentally fell asleep.

* * *

 _There was a light blue tunnel paved with uneven blocks on all sides and no visible sources of light. Despite this Zhane could see perfectly in the tunnel, as if the blocks themselves radiated light. He brushed his hands against the blocks, but he couldn't feel any texture on them, just the pressure from his hand against the wall. Figuring something must be wrong Zhane pressed his hand harder against the blocks, but to no avail. Realizing that trying to feel them was pointless Zhane wandered down the tunnel. He could hear a faint voice, a female voice by the sounds of it, begging him to stop and just talk things out. But another voice, a louder more sinister voice, told him to keep going. Feeling lost Zhane tried to decipher both voices, both of them growing louder and louder by the second, each shouting his name._

Zhane shook himself awake from the dream. As his breathing started to even he noticed someone was standing over him. He looked up and saw that it was Odd.

"Hey buddy." he started. "I saw you lying over here shaking in your sleep, you okay?"

Zhane eyed him for a moment before stating "I'm fine. But thanks for your concern I guess." Odd gave him a skeptical stare as Zhane stood up. "I'm fine, really."

"Well, I suppose I'll take your word for it." Odd said. "Anyways I wanted to introduce you to some of my friends." Odd turned around and made a gesture to follow him.

"That's not really necessary Odd.." Zhane started before Odd grabbed him by the wrist and started pulling him.

"Nonsense! They're great people, and I feel as if you'd get along with them."

Zhane merely sighed and accepted his fate. Odd dragged him to the bench where the group of four kids were gathered. "Everyone, this is Zhane." Odd said while dramatically waving his arms as if to 'present' Zhane. Not knowing what to do Zhane just stood there and waved awkwardly at everyone.

"Okay Zhane, this is Jeremie." Odd said, pointing to the blonde kid on the laptop. He then pointed to the pink girl next to Jeremie and said "This is Aelita.". Odd then pointed to the Asian girl and said "That's Yumi, and this Ulrich." Odd finished by pointing to the kid in the green jacket.

"It's nice to meet you." Aelita said offering Zhane her hand. Zhane shook her hand before looking at everyone else. Jeremie finished typing something into his laptop before looking up.

"Sorry about that. Hello Zhane. Is it actually your first year at Kadic?" Jeremie inquired, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah, it's my first year here. You guys have all been here before I take it?" Zhane asked looking at all of them.

"We all attend classes here, but I'm the only one who doesn't live on campus." Yumi said, shaking Zhane's hand.

"I hope Odd didn't tell you any of his fanciful tales already." Ulrich quipped with a smirk.

"Nothing too weird, just mass disappearances and simultaneous memory wipes. Almost like an alien invasion." Zhane chuckled.

"Man I wish aliens would invade, it would make for a nice change of pace." Odd stated while stretching.

"Odd, it's highly unlikely aliens would invade Kadic Academy out of all the places on Earth. They would most likely target capital cities first before spreading to the outer territories." Aelita informed him, sounding very much like a teacher lecturing a student. Zhane chuckled to himself, but there was something that was nagging at him. Aelita's voice sounded vaguely familiar. Dismissing these thoughts Zhane turned his mind back to the conversation at hand. "So Zhane, what did you spend your summer doing?" Aelita asked him.

Zhane considered a moment before answering. "Mostly spent it getting ready for Kadic I suppose. It kinda got thrust upon me suddenly, but so far I'm glad I came."

"Do you think you're going to get homesick while you're here?" Ulrich asked him.

There was a brief moment of silence before Zhane answered, but when he did his voice came out very quiet. "No, there's no way I'll miss home." Zhane shook his head and seemed to liven back up. "Enough about that though, isn't it almost time for dinner to start?"

Odd perked up at the mention of dinner and quickly ran off into the cafeteria cheering. Zhane stared blankly at him for a moment before turning to the others and asking "Is he always like this?".

The group laughed and confirmed what Zhane was thinking. Jeremie put his laptop into his bag before getting up and heading into the cafeteria with Ulrich and Yumi. "Trust me Zhane, you'll like it here. I know I was nervous when I first came here, but you'll find that it isn't so bad." Aelita said before running off to join the others.

That nagging thought resurfaced in Zhane's mind. Why was that voice so familiar? He had never met her before now, and yet he was certain he had heard her voice somewhere before...Then it hit him. Her voice was the female voice he heard in his dreams earlier.

* * *

 **A/N: Nothing much to state here this time. Read and review please!**


	4. Secrets and Lies

Chapter 4

Zhane's mind was reeling from his realization. Could it really have been Aelita's voice that he was hearing in his dream? No, that wasn't possible. His dream was recent and he was just attributing the voice he heard to one heard recently, that's all. At least that's what he told himself. The other option was much too weird for him to handle. Not wanting to waste any more time Zhane headed to the cafeteria to get some dinner before it was all gone.

After receiving his tray of food Zhane tried to find a table to sit at. There was only one table with open spots left, and that was the table with Odd and his friends. Sighing to himself Zhane headed over to their table. "Mind if I sit with you guys?" he asked to the group.

Odd smiled and said "Sure thing Zhane, and whatever you don't happen to finish I'll be happy to take!" Zhane eyed the two empty trays already in front of Odd and raised and eyebrow questioningly at him before sitting down. "As I was saying earlier." Odd said, apparently continuing an earlier conversation. "Do you guys have any plans for the last few days before classes start?"

"Not me." Yumi answered. "All I'm doing is watching the house while my family is away."

"I was thinking about practicing my soccer skills a bit more, but aside from that nothing." Ulrich said finishing his food.

"What about you Zhane, you got any plans for the next few days?" Aelita asked looking at him.

Zhane looked up from his food and paused before answering. "Nothing much I guess. The only thing that really comes to mind is exploring that abandoned factory on the other side of town. Any of you up for it?"

The group glanced at each other before Jeremie said "That's highly inadvisable. The abandoned factory is a very dangerous place to be. It could easily cost you your life Zhane, so I would recommend against going there."

There was a brief moment's pause where everyone was silent. Then Zhane started laughing, as if Jeremie had just told some hilarious joke. "That doesn't scare me man." Zhane said wiping tears out of his eyes. "Once you've been to hell and back, a return trip doesn't sound too bad."

"Exactly what's that supposed to mean?" Ulrich asked cautiously.

Zhane rolled his eyes. "It means what it means, not that hard to figure out." Zhane stood up and turned to leave. "Either way I think I'm gonna call it a night, still got some jet lag in me. Feel free to take whatever's left of that Odd.."

Before he could leave Ulrich grabbed by his upper arm. "Just promise us you won't do anything reckless, okay?"

The moment Ulrich grabbed onto his arm Zhane froze. His breaths came short and quick, and his hands were balled into fists so tight his knuckles were white. "Please let go." he said through gritted teeth. After a more seconds he practically shouted "Let go!". When he did a light bulb a few tables down burst and shattered, surprising everyone in the cafeteria. Ulrich relinquished his grip, and Zhane seemed to relax slightly. He ran his hands through his hair and took some deep breaths. "Sorry if I snapped, just don't touch me there. At all." With those parting words Zhane left the group, and headed to his room to sleep.

* * *

After Zhane left Jim came into the cafeteria to see what was going on. Seeing the broken light bulb he made a note to replace it after he sent everyone out. The Lyoko Warriors were in Jeremie's room, discussing everything.

"Zhane seems interesting." Aelita said while reading a book on Jeremie's bed.

"Interesting or not, we can't let him get to the factory. If he discovers the supercomputer who knows what will happen?" Jeremie said typing something into his computer.

"That light bulb bursting sure was surprising though, they really should make sure everything's working fine at this school." Odd said while rubbing his dog Kiwi.

"It was an awfully big coincidence that it burst right when Zhane snapped though." Ulrich mused leaning against the wall. "Almost too big of a coincidence..."

Jeremie turned around to face everyone. "You're not implying that Xana is back or anything are you?"

Ulrich shrugged. "I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is that it was weird how the bulb happened to go off right when Zhane did. It might be worth at least checking out."

"Why do you think being grabbed set him off though?" Yumi asked looking at Jeremie.

"I couldn't tell you." Jeremie admitted. "But what I can tell you is that Xana is gone, there wasn't a trace of him after we were done and there certainly isn't now. We can even go to the factory to prove it, if you want."

"Count me out." Yumi said. "I've had more than my fair share of Xana and Lyoko. I should also be heading back home soon too." Yumi walked towards the door before stating "I'll catch you guys tomorrow, call me if any trouble comes up."

Jeremie looked at everyone else before asking "Well, are you all going to be coming?"

Aelita marked her page in the book before setting it down. "Sure, I don't have anything else to do now anyways."

Odd looked up from Kiwi. "Count me in, I'm always up for a trip to the factory."

"Guess that settles it then, let's get going now." Ulrich said heading out the door.

The group headed out of the building and into the forest near campus. When they got to a small clearing they moved a manhole cover and headed down into the sewers. Grabbing their scooters and skateboards they rode off into the inner sewers, towards the factory.

* * *

 _Zhane stood alone on a small island. Looking out to the sea he saw that the sun was setting, which meant it was time to get off the island. Suddenly the sky went from sunset to midday in an instant, and the island Zhane stood on started shaking. The island rose into the air, and with the movement all the sand blew off, revealing only rock. Zhane hung on to the rock for dear life as the island flew higher and higher past the clouds. The island suddenly stopped and Zhane opened his eyes to look around. All around him there were numerous other floating islands comprised of rock. Below him the ocean seemed calm, but it was a bit darker, and something else was off about it that Zhane couldn't place._

 _A voice rang out all around him, sounding both menacing and soothing at the same time. "All that you see and more can be yours." the voice said. "All you have to do is listen, and take it!" Zhane felt a rushing sensation and saw the scenery change rapidly below him. Zhane couldn't make out specifics, but the colors of the scenery changed to a light blue, then a light brown, and finally a green. The scenery suddenly stopped, leaving Zhane in a blue hall, the same one from his previous dream._

" _Go forward, claim that which was promised to you." Zhane turned and started to head down the hall before he heard another voice call out to him._

" _Please, don't!" the voice had called out. It was feminine in nature, and sounded like it was pleading. "Whatever you're thinking about, whatever that is just stop it! We can talk things out..."_

Zhane awoke in a cold sweat. Another one of those strange dreams, and another one where he heard the voices. There was no mistaking it this time, the feminine voice was Aelita's. But who did the other voice belong to? It certainly wasn't anyone he had ever met. Looking at his alarm clock Zhane realized that he had barely slept a full hour. Zhane sighed to himself.

"This has to stop, and soon." he said to himself. "I can't get any good sleep with these dreams." Sighing once again Zhane stepped out of bed and got dressed. Figuring since he was already up, he might as well go out and do something. Being careful as to not attract any attention Zhane slipped out of his room and left the building.

"I don't think I'll be able to explore that factory tonight, so I might as well go with that forest near campus." Zhane headed off into the direction of said forest, trying to stay out of the light. As he approached the forest his lack of sleep started to catch up to him. His legs started feeling heavier with every step and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. Before too long he fell to the ground, and fell asleep on the spot.

* * *

The group had reached the factory and were taking the elevator down to the supercomputer room. Upon reaching the floor the elevator door opened and the group stepped out of it. In the center of the room the supercomputer still stood. Jeremie approached it and a panel opened up, revealing a lever that was down.

"See?" Jeremie said, pointing to the lever. "The supercomputer is still turned off, Xana is still gone."

Odd scratched his chin while looking at the supercomputer. "Sure looks like it Einstein. Let's head back now, it's starting to get late." With that Odd and Ulrich entered the elevator and headed to the factory main floor, while Aelita stayed behind with Jeremie.

"Aren't you going to go with them?" Jeremie asked Aelita.

"I should ask you the same thing Jeremie. I can tell that you were as worried as Ulrich was about Xana potentially coming back." Aelita stated with a worried look on her face.

Jeremie sighed while staring at the lever to the supercomputer. "It's just that...I don't want our efforts to be nothing. For your father's sacrifice to have been in vain Aelita. If there's even a chance that Xana might be back then it merit investigation."

Aelita nodded. "I know what you mean Jeremie, but you can't dwell on that forever."

"I know Aelita, I just want to be sure of everything. I'll turn on the supercomputer and launch a quick super scan to see if it picks up any signs of Xana. I'll meet you back at school after that." Jeremie grabbed the lever and pushed it up, bringing the supercomputer to life.

"I'll stay with here with you until you're done. I don't want you to stay here all night."

Jeremie smiled as he and Aelita entered the elevator. "Thanks Aelita, that means a lot to me."

* * *

 **A/N: Well there's another chapter done for now. Also William will indeed be a part of the story, just not right now. Read and review please!**


	5. Strange Behavior

Chapter 5

As the hours of the night passed Jeremie sat at the supercomputer typing away, searching for any trace of Xana. After a few hours Jeremie stopped typing and sighed. "After an extensive search I've come up with nothing. There's no traces of Xana anywhere here or on the network."

"That's good, we can mark this whole thing off as one big coincidence then." Aelita said looking at him.

"Yeah. I suppose this just one of those times were a coincidence is nothing but a coincidence." Jeremie stood up and headed into the elevator. "I'm going to shut down the supercomputer, then we can head back."

Aelita and Jeremie made there way back to the sewer entrance and were heading up the ladder. "All I'm saying is that I'm glad Xana's still destroyed Jeremie."

Jeremie sighed before pushing the manhole cover out of the way. "When you say it like that it's almost as if you expect him to come back." Stepping out of the sewers he offered his hand to Aelita to help her out. ""It's darker than I expected." Jeremie stated, taking out his phone to try and light the area in front of them.

"Be careful Jeremie, we don't want to bump into Jim this late."

"Don't worry Aelita I know what I'm doing." After walking forward for a few moments Jeremie stopped and signaled for Aelita to stop too.

"Something wrong?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie's eyes seemed to scan the surrounding area before saying "I'm not sure, but it feels like-"

"Someone's watching you?" A voice offered from the darkness, cutting Jeremie off.

Jeremie moved closer towards Aelita holding his arm out in front of her. "Who are you, and where are you?"

The person watching them started chuckling. "All ready to protect her, your priorities are set aren't they? In any case you needn't worry, it's just me." With that a boy stepped into the light emitted by Jeremie's phone, grinning madly.

"Zhane! Thank goodness it's just you." Jeremie said instantly relaxing. "What are you doing out here at this hour?"

"Couldn't sleep too well. What I'd like to know is why you're both out here so late." Zhane walked closer to them staring at them inquisitively. "You seem too innocent to be up to anything risque, so what is it then?"

"What we do on our time isn't any of your business Zhane, so stay out of it." Aelita said, glaring at Zhane.

Zhane raised an eyebrow at this. "Is that so? Well then angel could you answer me a simple question then, if you'd be so kind?" Zhane started walking closer to Aelita until he was only a few arm lengths from her. Staring into her eyes he asked "Just who are you really?"

"What kind of question is that? I'm me, nothing else."

Zhane sighed. "So either your lying or I'm crazy then?" Turning his back to Aelita he walked a few steps forwards. "I'm not sure which I'd rather be true at this point." He muttered to himself. "In any case I'm-" Before he could finish his sentence Zhane let out a gasp of pain and started stumbling. He leaned against the nearest tree and started taking quick shallow breaths.

"Are you okay Zhane?" Jeremie asked, concern in his voice.

After a moment Zhane stopped taking the quick breaths and looked at Jeremie. "Yeah I'm fine, just need a bit of rest. We'll continue this conversation later." Zhane walked off into the darkness, presumably towards Kadic. While he was walking away Jeremie and Aelita heard him talking to himself saying something about "I promised I'd go tomorrow already."

"That was strange, do you actually think he'll be fine?" Aelita asked, looking at Jeremie.

"Not much we can do about either way. Just give him some time to rest and I'm sure he'll be fine." Jeremie checked the time before gasping in alarm. "The same can't be said for us if we don't hurry back though!"

* * *

 _Zhane sat on a grassy hill overlooking a small neighborhood. It was sundown, and getting closer to night with each passing minute. In front of Zhane there were two knives stuck into the ground, blade first, in front of him. After a moment of staring at them someone walked up next to him._

" _Somehow I knew I'd find you here. Mind if I joined you?" The person asked in a clearly female voice, belonging to some Zhane knew personally._

" _I couldn't stop you either way." Zhane said shrugging._

 _The person sat down next to Zhane, their long hair billowing in the wind. They stared at the knives in front of Zhane before stating "I always liked that pair of knives."_

" _That's something we'll have to disagree on." Zhane said, absentmindedly rubbing his upper arm._

" _You can't keep running you know. You'll have to face it someday, whether you want to or not."_

 _Zhane glared at the person sitting next to him. "Who said I was running?"_

 _The person chuckled. "Zhane, even people without eyes could see it." They lightly tapped one of their eyes as if to emphasize this point. "Trust me, I'd know all about that."_

 _Zhane sighed, drawing his knees up to his chin. "I just wish life wouldn't move from this moment, when things were so simple. Guess I can't have that though, can I?"_

" _No one can Zhane, trust me on that."_

The next morning at Kadic came quickly, with everyone getting ready for their morning routine. Everyone, except one dark haired boy. Zhane slept soundly, not to be woken by anything happening around him. Suddenly though, as if an electric jolt ran through him, he shot straight up and started rubbing his eyes,

"I know already, Christ." He muttered trying his best to stay awake. "I promised myself didn't I? I'll see the mission through, don't be so pushy." Seemingly talking to himself he got ready for what it was he had to do.

* * *

Inside the cafeteria the Lyoko Warriors, sans Yumi, ate breakfast at their usual table talking about the events of the previous night. "So the super scan came up with nothing then?" Ulrich asked Jeremie.

"Yeah, but that's to be expected. The weird thing was we met Zhane on our way back from the factory."

"What, did he like follow you guys or something?"

"Nothing like that." Jeremie stated. "We met him after we were already back. He was acting pretty strange though. Before he went back to his room he was talking to himself about something." Turning to Aelita he asked "Do you remember what it was?"

Aelita paused to think for a moment. "Yeah I do, it was something about him promising to go somewhere tomorrow. What do you think it means?"

"Could just be that he didn't have enough sleep. I know I can get pretty nutty when I don't get my sleep." Odd said while demolishing his second tray of food.

"According to you all he does is sleep!" Ulrich joked. "But, he did have an interest in the factory. Maybe he was talking about going there?" Ulrich offered hopefully.

Jeremie thought for a second and nodded. "It's possible, but we'd have to be sure he's not on campus before we do anything about it."

"Let me check on something then." Ulrich said rising from the table. He crossed the cafeteria and started to a girl in a pink top with black hair.

"What could he have to check with Sissi?" Odd asked confused.

After a moment of talking with Sissi Ulrich started walking back to the table. Before reaching the table he took out his phone and called someone. "Yeah Yumi? You're gonna have to meet us at the factory, something's come up. No, it's not Xana this time, but I still think you should be there. Thanks." Hanging up the phone Ulrich looked at the group. "Bad news guys, Zhane is definitely headed towards the factory. Sissi said she saw him heading into the forest a couple of hours ago."

"That doesn't mean he's headed to the factory though Ulrich, he could just have wanted a nice walk." Odd stated.

"That's a bit too optimistic for me. We should head to the factory, just to be safe." Jeremie said heading out the door. The rest of the group followed him and went their usual path into the forest. Upon reaching the manhole leading into the sewers they found that it had already been moved away.

"Still think it's just a normal walk?" Aelita asked, looking at Odd.

"Well, it was possible."

Upon reaching the factory the group dropped to the main floor and waited for the elevator. While they were waiting someone else dropped down beside them.

"Glad I'm not late." Yumi said, joining the group. "Mind filling me in on what's going on?"

The elevator opened up and the group stepped inside. "It's highly possible the Zhane as discovered the factory, and by extension the supercomputer. All we have to do is launch a return to the past if he hasn't managed to virtualize himself."

"And if he has Einstein? Then what?" Odd asked.

"Then we either devirtualize him or try reasoning with him, whichever's easier."

"I've got a bad feeling about which option it's going to be." Ulrich said solemnly.

Reaching the main control room, they found that the supercomputer had been turned on and the chair was facing the monitors. Looking around the room Zhane was nowhere to be seen. Sitting down in the chair Jeremie took a look at the various things going on.

"It appears that Zhane did manage to virtualize himself. I've got to give him credit, I didn't expect that. In any case he seems fine for-" Before he could finish talking Jeremie looked closer at something on the screen. "No that can't be right..."

"Did something happen?" Yumi asked, craning her neck to try and get a better view.

"Zhane just lost half his life points suddenly, and now there's a group of three tarantulas headed straight for him!"

"Then launch the materialization program Jeremie." Aelita suggested.

"Good idea! I'll try it now." Jeremie's hands began to frantically type in the necessary code needed for the materialization program, only for a large read exclamation mark to appear on the screen. "It's no use, the program isn't working! I'll try to get it fixed, in the meantime you should get on Lyoko and fight off those monsters." Jeremie turned to them before adding "And make sure you're extra careful this time. I don't like the looks of any of this."

* * *

 **A/N: Not much to report, read and review please.**


	6. Return to Lyoko

Chapter 6

Jeremie briefed the group as they exited the elevator into the scanner room. "Zhane seems to be keeping away from the tarantulas for now, but he'll run out of places to run eventually. He's in the forest sector, so that's where you'll be virtualized. You need to get to Zhane, destroy the monsters, and find out what Zhane's up to. Devirtualize him if necessary."

"Yeah, we get it Einstein." Odd said. "This isn't our first time on Lyoko you know."

Odd, Yumi and Ulrich stepped into the three scanners in the center of the room. The doors closed behind them as Jeremie began the virtualization process. "Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Ulrich Transfer: Yumi. Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Yumi." Jeremie typed out a few more things before finishing. "Virtualization." One of the now empty scanner opened up allowing Aelita to get inside. Upon doing so Jeremie went through the virtualization process again, and sent her to Lyoko.

Her body materialized a few feet above the ground before gravity took over and she dropped down. Ulrich, Odd and Yumi were all there waiting for Jeremie's instructions. "Zhane is directly north of your location, I'm sending the vehicles as fast as I can." After a brief moment of waiting the overbike, overboard, and overwing appeared in front of the group. Aelita got onto the overwing with Yumi and the group headed north to find Zhane.

It didn't take long to find him. The three tarantulas had cornered him, behind him was only a void leading to the digital sea. Zhane's Lyoko avatar was compromised primarily of a black suit with red around the torso and legs. Reaching from both of his shoulders to his wrists were long silver chains that snaked around his arms. In the center of his chest was a clear translucent orb that appeared dark due to his suit. He was glaring at the tarantulas, not seeing the group approaching them. The tarantulas were eying Zhane, before turning towards one-another and nodding. They then bent their knees into an unmistakable bow.

Zhane's shocked expression mirrored that of the group's. Odd shook it off first before steadying his arm and crying "Laser arrow!". A flurry of laser arrows shot out of Odd's arm at one the tarantulas, grazing it's side. The three tarantulas turned towards the approaching group before all firing upon Odd at once. Odd tried to outmaneuver the lasers, but there too many to dodge. Five lasers hit him in the chest in rapid succession, throwing him off the overboard and devirtualizing him.

Before the group could retaliate Zhane stepped in front of the tarantulas and raised his arm, as if signaling them to stop. The group stopped a few feet away from Zhane and were looking at each other confused. "I think you should see this Jeremie." Aelita said before sending Jeremie a visual of what was going on.

In the factory Jeremie was just as confused as the rest of the group, looking at the screen intensely. The elevator door opened to reveal Odd walking towards Jeremie with a glum look on his face. "Back so soon?" Jeremie asked, not taking his eyes of the screen.

Odd walked next to him so he could also see the screen. "Yeah Einstein, you know just how crazy I am about you." he said sarcastically.

Back on Lyoko Zhane was glaring at the group. "So..." He began. "I'm sure this all a big misunderstanding or something, right? You were just confused, or scared, and had to keep this virtual playground a secret from me. That's what you were gonna say, right?" Zhane eyed the group, awaiting their response.

"Zhane, just listen to us for a moment-" Aelita began before Zhane cut her off.

"I'd love to angel! Believe me listening to whatever pitiful excuse you come up with would just make my day. However you took my trust and stomped all over it already, I'm not letting that happen again." With that Zhane raised his fist before opening it, signaling the tarantulas to attack. The tarantulas started firing upon the group immediately, destroying the overwing and overbike in the process. Ulrich stood at the front trying to use his katanas to deflect as many lasers as possible.

Yumi took out both of her fans and waited for an opening. Upon seeing one she flipped over the barrage of lasers and flung her fans at one of the tarantulas. Both of her fans ran over the eye on the back of its head, instantly destroying it. Aelita formed an energy field in her hand before launching it at Zhane. Zhane instinctively flinched and raised his hand to protect himself. The energy field hit his hand dead center, but didn't appear to damage him. Instead a small amount of electricity formed around the hand that blocked the attack.

Zhane's eyes widened in surprise before quickly returning to normal. He nodded to himself and reached out an arm in front of him, closing a fist and concentrating. In a puff of darkness a black longsword appeared in his hands which he wielded in a reverse-grip style. He crouched down and waited for the moment to strike.

Yumi attempted to leap out and strike another tarantula with her fans, but Zhane anticipated the attack. He threw his sword at her, flying through the air like a disk. It struck her mid leap and devirtualized her instantly. The sword careened through the air before returning to Zhane's hand.

Ulrich grimaced, they were now outnumbered, and Aelita couldn't harm Zhane with her energy fields. Ulrich cried out "Triplicate!" and two copies of his appeared by his side. The two copies rushed towards the tarantulas in an attempt to destroy them. Zhane turned to on the copies and slashed at it with his swords, destroying it. The other copied managed to destroy one of the tarantulas. The final tarantula turned to the copy and fired at it, destroying it. This gave Ulrich the opening he needed to rush the tarantula and impale it with his katana, before turning to face Zhane.

"You're pretty good." Zhane admitted to Ulrich. "How long have you had to train? A few months, a few years? How long have you been lieing?!" He shouted striking out at Ulrich. Ulrich blocked his attack with his katanas before attempting to strike back. Zhane blocked his attack in return and glared at him.

"Okay then, how about this?" Ulrich backed away from Zhane before crying out "Triangulate!" running around Zhane at super speed in a triangle shape. Zhane crouched in the middle and drew a hand across his blade, causing it to glow with a dark energy. He then spun in a circle with his sword outward, causing his sword to release a wave of energy that hit Ulrich, devirtualizing him.

Back in the factory Jeremie, Odd and Yumi grimaced at the turn of events. "Now Aelita's the only one left, and she can't even harm him!" Jeremie almost shouted.

"Can't you think of something Jeremie, isn't there something we haven't tried?" Yumi asked looking at him.

Jeremie thought for a moment before replying. "There is, but I can't guarantee you'll like it."

On Lyoko Zhane slowly walked towards Aelita his blade resting on his shoulder. "Well, I'd love to chat angel but I don't wanna waste my time on someone who speaks only in lies."

Aelita started backing up. "Believe me Zhane, we had a good reason for not telling you about this."

Zhane threw back his head and started laughing. "A good reason? Now that's rich! You could give Odd a run for his money on the jokes." Zhane stopped laughing and glared at her. He raised his sword above his head as if to slice her with it but stopped. He turned his head, as if to hear someone talking. After a moment he sighed to himself and lowered his sword. "Pushy as always." He muttered before looking around. Spotting Odd's forgotten overboard Zhane ran over to it and hopped on. After a moment of getting accustomed to it he turned to Aelita. "You're lucky that I have to keep you alive, you know that?" With those parting words he flew off into the distance.

"Jeremie, Zhane got away. What should I do?" Aelita asked.

"Follow him Aelita. You can't take him in a fight, so just try to distract him and slow him down. He appears to be heading towards the edge of the sector, so head there!"

Aelita waved her hand over her star shaped bracelet to activate her wings, before speeding off towards the edge of the sector. After a moment of traveling she saw Zhane at the edge of the sector clutching his head. A red aura was emanating from his body. "Jeremie, what's going on?"

Jeremie's reply came panicked. "I'm not sure Aelita, but the Scipio code launched and I can't stop it! You're both headed to Sector 5 now!"

Aelita looked to Zhane to find that the aura was gone and he was no longer clutching his head. A white sphere appeared in front of them, spinning rapidly and then encompassing the both of them. The spinning intensified before slowing down as they arrived in Sector 5. Zhane had a look of amazement as he slowly walked into the corridor.

"Zhane please, you've got to stop!" Aelita called out to him.

Zhane turned around and stared at her. "Oh, you want me to trust you on this?" He questioned with venom in his voice. "Somehow I find anything you say hard to believe." Zhane turned back around and started walking again. Aelita was getting frustrated with his lack of co-operation and formed and energy field in her hand before throwing it at Zhane. Zhane turned around and blocked the energy field with his sword before rushing at Aelita. Before she could react she was shoved to the ground with Zhane partially standing on her to keep her down.

"When will you get it through that head of yours angel?" He asked glaring at her even harder now. "Attacking me is pointless, it only serves to piss me off even more." Zhane picked her up by her neck and threw her down the hallway. "Now if you want me to stay pissed off, then by all means keep attacking. Otherwise I'd stop and just enjoy the ride."

Aelita stood up and leaned against the wall for support. She could feel that she lost some life points from that throw, but she had to delay Zhane. "Just please Zhane. I know you have every reason to distrust me and every reason to be angry, but just listen to me this once please."

Zhane just grimaced and pushed passed her, heading deeper into Sector 5. Aelita followed him trying to stall for time. They came across the elevator and hopped aboard it, as it took them to the Celestial Dome. "What do you even want here Zhane?" Aelita asked looking at him.

Zhane stared at her back, looking into her eyes. "Truth be told, I'm not so sure myself. But, I got a feeling I'm getting close to it now." The elevator stopped at the Celestial Dome and they both walked onto the pathway towards the terminal.

Aelita eyed the terminal. They had always used it to gather data from Xana. It was here where her father made his last sacrifice so that Xana could be destroyed. "Zhane, I don't know exactly what it is you want, or what you're planning, but please stop this! We can talk it out, can't we?" She asked looking at him.

Zhane seemed to internally debate the idea for a moment. Letting out a sigh Zhane turned to her. "Maybe you're right Aelita. Perhaps we can-" Zhane paused mid sentence and turned to the corridor. "Someone is coming." He stated before drawing his blade again.

A person made there way out of the corridor and onto the platform. This person had a gray suit, dark hair, and wielded a large two-handed sword. Aelita's eyes widened. "William?"

William smiled at Aelita. "In the virtual flesh." He joked before turning to face Zhane. "I gotta take out this guy? Shouldn't be too hard." With that William rushed at Zhane attempting to strike him with his sword. Zhane held out his sword to block the blow, but the force behind it was too great and it sent Zhane reeling to the other end of the platform.

Zhane was panting and looked beyond angry. "I'm sick of all of you!" He roared, holding one of his arms out towards William. William rushed at Zhane only for a long chain to appear from Zhane's hand and start wrapping itself around William, immobilizing him. "I can see that the lies run deeper than I thought! I'm through dealing with you Aelita!" With that Zhane turned towards the terminal. He placed his right hand upon the center of it and waited.

For a moment nothing happened. Then Sector 5 changed from dark blue to a shade of dark red. Electricity began forming at Zhane's hand and slowly began encompassing his entire body. Zhane howled with pain as he attempted to remove his hand from the terminal in vain. After a moment the electricity stopped and a flurry of ones and zeroes appeared above the terminal, taking the shape of a person. After a moment the ones and zeroes vanished, leaving the person hovering above the terminal, eyes closed. They looked similar to Zhane, except their 'flesh' was paler, they had no chains around their arms, and in the middle of their torso was a strange eye-like symbol. The figure opened it's eyes and looked at them all.

Aelita looked at it in shock. In a tone barely above a whisper she uttered a single word. "Xana."

* * *

 **A/N: Things start to officially ramp up from here. Also this is the longest chapter yet, yay! Expect more like this in the you have any questions, comments, or concerns let me know and I shall address them. R &R please.**


	7. The Warriors Return

Chapter 7

The figure floating above the terminal raised it's hand in front of it's face and started flexing it's fingers experimentally, seemingly curious about them. Aelita stared in disbelief, shocked at what she was seeing. She formed two energy spheres in her hands and fired them at the figure. The figure glanced at Aelita before raising one of it's hands towards the energy sphere. Before the sphere made contact a barrier appeared and blocked the attack. "I think not." the figure spoke, it's voice sounding similar to Zhane's with an electronic filter over it. It reached to its mouth, seemingly surprised at it's ability to speak.

Zhane leaned on his sword for balance, still drained from activating the terminal, and glared at the floating figure. "You, just who or what are you exactly?" Zhane breathed out.

The figure looked down at Zhane before answering. "I am what you call Xana, and I appreciate your assistance in my return Zhane."

"So I wasn't just hearing things that whole time then..." Zhane's voice trailed off for a moment. "Exactly how much do you know about me then?"

"Enough." Xana stated simply. Xana slowly floated down onto the platform before returning his gaze to Aelita. He raised his arm to the air next to her and an outline similar to a jellyfish appeared in the air. Xana flexed his hand, and the outline vanished. Confused, Xana repeated the action meriting the same result. Xana let out what sounded like a sigh before turning to the terminal and using it. Within seconds of Xana touching the terminal a large block shot out of the dome crushing Aelita and William, devirtualizing them instantly.

"What did you just do?!" Zhane shouted, glaring at Xana.

"Getting rid of the distractions. Now Zhane, I know you must be angry and confused, such a thing is only natural. If you would focus for a brief moment though, I have a very generous-" Before he could finish his sentence Zhane swung his sword at Xana, but it only bounced off the protective barrier he had formed earlier. "It would appear you need time to calm down. As such, I shall contact you later." With that Xana turned around and shot a ray of energy at Zhane, giving him no time to react. The ray hit Zhane directly, devirtualizing him.

* * *

The walls of the scanner opened and Zhane stumbled out, his chest burning. Panting Zhane looked around to see that everyone was also in the scanner room, staring at him. "Someone mind telling me what's going on?" Zhane asked, looking at everyone.

"We'd like to know that too Zhane, because a lot of things happened there that didn't make any logical sense." Jeremie explained.

"What's there to know? I pushed my hand against a terminal and then out comes this Xana guy. Seemed simple enough to me."

"That's the problem." Ulrich chimed in. "We destroyed Xana a while back, so he shouldn't have appeared then."

"Is it possible the program might have missed any traces of Xana?" Aelita asked Jeremie.

Jeremie shook his head. "That's unlikely. Not only did my program erase all traces of Xana, we even checked last night if there was anything left and we found nothing."

"What if Xana created a backup though? Surely he could come back, right?" Yumi questioned, standing near the elevator on the far end of the room.

"Of course it'd be possible then, but exactly where would he get this..." Jeremie's voice trailed off as he stared at Zhane.

"Mind finishing that sentence for us Einstein?" Odd asked hopefully.

Aelita's eyes widened as she looked at Jeremie. "You don't mean to imply that Xana really could have done that right?"

"Compared to some of the Xana attacks we've seen it seems easily possible, but there's only one way to know for sure." Jeremie turned to Zhane. "Zhane if you could just step into the scanner for a bit I'll promise we'll explain everything to you."

Zhane considered this for a moment. "Whatever." he muttered, stepping back into the scanner. Jeremie and the others all boarded the elevator and went up a floor into the control room. Sitting in the chair Jeremie started typing at the keyboard. The scanner door closed behind Zhane and the ring started rising around him. After a moment the door opened again.

"Head up here Zhane, we've got a lot to tell you now." Jeremie's voice rang out over the loudspeaker. Zhane immediately headed to the elevator and joined the rest of the group. When he arrived Jeremie and the group turned to face him.

"So, what's going on then?" Zhane asked them, his arms crossed.

"It's a long story Zhane, so you better sit down and get comfortable." Jeremie stated. With that the group started telling Zhane what they knew. How Jeremie had started the supercomputer and discovered Lyoko with Aelita on it, the materialization of Aelita, Xana's escape into the internet, William's possession by Xana, and their final battle with Xana.

"With my father's sacrifice the program finally had enough power to operate, destroying Xana for good." Aelita said solemnly.

"At least, that's what we thought up until now." Jeremie stated, staring straight at Zhane. "It would appear that before he was destroyed Xana was able to create a backup that would one day bring him back. This backup was then implemented into you Zhane."

Zhane scoffed. "Exactly how is that possible?"

"I'm not 100 percent certain on the specifics, but it's the only possibility. This backup creates a link between you and Xana, so if we shut off the supercomputer..."

"Then I'll die?"

"Yes, that is the case." Jeremie said, glancing at the screen as if to be sure. "This leaves us all in a tricky situation. Removing that backup from you would be difficult, if not impossible, but shutting down the supercomputer isn't an option." Jeremie turned to Ulrich, Odd and Yumi. "I know this asking a bit much of you all, and if you refuse nobody will think any less of you. Would you fight Xana with us again?"

"Wait, exactly who do you mean by us Einstein?" Odd asked.

"He means me and him." Aelita answered. "I can't leave Xana alone, it would mean my father's sacrifice was meaningless, and shutting down the supercomputer is only a temporary solution at best. You don't have to help if you don't want to, we all know the danger involved in this."

"Are you kidding princess?" Odd said, grinning. "I wouldn't leave you guys for the world. And besides, Lyoko is always kinda fun ya know?"

"It isn't a game Odd!" Ulrich snapped. "But I understand what you mean. You can count me in too, I wouldn't be able to just walk away from all this."

Yumi sighed before looking at the group. "I have my reservations against this,but you guys would be lost without me. I'll help, even if I don't particularly enjoy it,"

"Well that's everyone then." Jeremie said, turning back to the monitor.

Behind them William loudly cleared his throat. "Aren't you forgetting someone?" he asked, glaring at the group.

Jeremie turned back around to face him. "It is true that you were virtualized and have fought Xana before. But due to being possessed we left you out of the final mission. If everyone agrees on it, you can join. I say yes." Jeremie turned to Aelita.

"I say yes, he couldn't control what he did. It could have just as easily happened to anyone of us."

"I'm all for it!" Odd said, raising his arm into the air.

"I'm fined with it." Ulrich said. "We could always use a helping hand."

Everyone turned to Yumi, awaiting her answer. She glared at William before speaking. "While I can't hold what you did while under Xana's influence against you, I can hold your attitude during the mission against you. It was your overinflated ego and stubbornness that cause you to be possessed, who's to say that won't happen again?"

"Believe me I learned my lesson Yumi. I made a stupid mistake, you think I haven't realized that? I'm extremely sorry about what happened, and I know I can never take it back. Just let me join to try and atone for what I did."

Yumi thought for a moment before sighing. "I guess if I don't give you a chance I wouldn't be any better. Fine, you can join."

"Welcome to the gang William!" Odd said throwing his arm around William's neck. "Wait, should I be saying welcome back instead?" Odd asked himself.

"That's nice and all, but what about me?" Zhane asked. "Do I have any place in your group?"

"I'm okay with you being with us, but going to Lyoko is another thing. If everyone agrees on it then I'm fine with it." Jeremie said turning back to the monitor.

Everyone in the group glanced at each other skeptically.

"No." came Yumi, Ulrich, and William's answer simultaneously.

"I don't see a problem with it." Odd said. "More allies means it'll be easier on all of us."

Aelita seemed to consider it for a moment, even if the vote had already been decided. "Even though you might have anger issues and trust issues, they didn't seem wholly unfounded. Part of me wants to say no, but that's mostly for selfish reasons. You joining would be a big help, but it doesn't seem it's going to happen. Sorry Zhane."

Zhane stood up and headed to the elevator. "Tch. Should've known this was gonna be the answer. If you decide you actually need me I'll go back to being bored out of my skull somewhere." With that Zhane sighed and left in the elevator.

"Exactly why did you think he shouldn't join?" Odd asked the others after Zhane had left.

"You saw how he was Odd!" Ulrich started. "He attacked us of his own free will, just because he was upset with us. Who knows what he'll do if we decided to let him join."

"He wouldn't be the first one of us to make a mistake because of how he feels. We've all been there before, you know how it is." Aelita stated solemnly, before turning her attention to Jeremie's work.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter down! A bit shorter than the last one, but I felt it was a bit necessary with how this chapter turned out. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know and I shall address them. And as always, please read and review!**


	8. Temptation

Chapter 8

Zhane walked away from the factory keeping his head down, listening to his music. Instead of heading through the sewers he opted to take an above ground route back to Kadic. He mulled over the events that happened today. Unknowingly releasing a malevolent computer virus hell-bent on killing everyone definitely wasn't on his list of greatest accomplishments. Not being allowed to join in the fight against Xana felt like a great disappointment, not that Zhane could blame them. He certainly would've done the same in their situation. Sighing Zhane continued onwards, not really paying attention to his surroundings. Suddenly Zhane felt a faint rumbling in his pocket. Reaching downwards he pulled out his black phone and looked at the ID. It was coming from an unknown number. Curious, Zhane answered the phone.

"This is Zhane, exactly who are you?" he asked.

"Oh, I think we both know who I am Zhane." the voice on the other end of the line answered.

"Xana..." Zhane mumbled before returning his attention to the call. "How do you know my phone number? For that matter, how are you even calling me? Exactly what do you want?"

"So many questions Zhane. Fear not though, for I shall answer them all." Xana replied. "Firstly your phone number is but one of many things I learned about you while I was dormant. You have quite an interesting history, as I'm sure you know. Isn't a bit hypocritical to be angry at the others for keeping secrets when you are keeping some yourself?"

"That's different." Zhane said quickly, rubbing his upper arm absentmindedly.

"I'm sure it is." Xana stated flatly. "Moving on transmitting a telephone signal from Lyoko is rather simple compared to some of the other things I'm capable of, as I'm sure you know."

Zhane shrugged. He had a fair point with that one.

"Finally, I'm contacting you in the hopes that you'll listen to me. I have a proposition for you."

"And what would that be?" Zhane asked cautiously.

"It's rather simple. I'd like you to join me my dear boy,"

"Never," Zhane immediately replied. "I'd never betray my friends like that, especially since I know what you are."

"Now now Zhane, let's not get too hasty. Do you really consider those others your friends? After all you've only known them for around a day now. Most of what they've told you then was lies, and you know that for certain. As for me, why I haven't wronged you in any way. What reason would you have to fight against me? Although, you can't even do that since they've rejected you."

"It's not like that!" Zhane snapped, earning him a curious glance from some passerby. "They have their reasons to not trust me, and I respect them for that. If they don't want me to fight then I won't, no matter how much I want you."

"Except it's not that simple Zhane." Xana insisted. "Deep down you want to fight, so what's stopping you? None of the others could stop you on Lyoko, how do you think they'll stop you from fighting if you want to?"

"Well that's-" Zhane started, before being interrupted by Xana.

"All I'm asking is that you think it over Zhane. We both know you're smarter than this." With those final words the call ended, leaving Zhane more confused than ever. Sighing he put his phone away. He internally debated on whether he should immediately head back to Kadic or not. Making his decision Zhane headed into the forest.

* * *

Back at the factory the rest of the group were discussing the recent battle on Lyoko as Jeremie continued working at the keyboard, occasionally stopping to listen to something.

"The strangest thing is..." Aelita began. "When Xana got a body the first thing he tried to do was summon a Scyphozoa, but he failed. Why do you think that is?"

"Most likely because inputting a backup into a human cost him a great deal of his power." Jeremie answered. "There's only so many functions he'd be able to retain through just a drastic transition. It's a wonder it worked as well as it did." He turned to the rest of the group before continuing. "I've been running some scans on the Internet and I found no traces of Xana anywhere, which means he's trapped on Lyoko for now. He'll most likely try to build up power before trying to escape again."

"So all we gotta do is stop his attacks before then, right?" William asked.

"It's not going to be that simple." Yumi answered. "Even if we do deactivate the towers as long as we return to the past Xana gets stronger, and he knows that. We'll have to be on our A-game."

"There's something that's been bugging me." Ulrich piped up. "How was Zhane able to beat all of us even though it was his first time on Lyoko?"

"Oh speak for yourself Ulrich. At least you didn't get beat by a bunch of tarantulas." Odd pouted.

"I'm not sure exactly how he managed that either. Perhaps Xana could have been guiding him during the fight?" Aelita suggested.

"While that is certainly possible, there's other factors to consider." Jeremie said, turning back to the monitor. "Remember Zhane's power on Lyoko?" he asked, bringing up footage of the fight. Jeremie paused the footage when Aelita's energy sphere hit Zhane's hand. "Not only is he able to absorb energy through his hands he's also capable of manipulating it in various ways. I'm not certain if he's gained these powers because of Xana's backup, or-"

"Or if Xana chose him as the backup because he knew he'd have these powers?" Aelita finished. Jeremie nodded, leaving the group to think things over.

"I'm starting to get hungry, is it lunch yet?" Odd asked, rubbing his stomach.

"For once, you're actually right Odd." Jeremie quipped. "You can all head back, I'll join you shortly. I just have to make sure some different programs are running properly."

"Suit yourself Einstein, but don't be too late or else I'll get your portion!" Odd teased before heading off the elevator, with Ulrich, Yumi and William following close behind.

"You sure you'll be fine here alone Jeremie?" Aelita asked concernedly. Jeremie nodded his head towards her in response. Aelita hesitantly joined the others in the elevator, and started to head back to Kadic.

"So, exactly why did you guys say Zhane shouldn't join?" Odd asked as they were heading back to Kadic.

"You saw how he acted on Lyoko!" Ulrich exclaimed. "He was perfectly willing to attack all of us just because he was a bit upset. He didn't understand what was going on at all!"

"I'd have to say, for once we agree." William said. "Someone as reckless and as impulsive as him would just make things more difficult for us."

"Gee, I wonder who that reminds of us." Yumi said sarcastically.

"I've changed since then!" William said indignantly. "What I want to know is why you thought he should join Aelita.

Aelita let out a small sigh before she started speaking. "I know he released Xana and for all intents and purposes I should be angry with him for that. However I just can't bring myself to hate him. He was confused by the whole ordeal, and he did have every reason to distrust us. None of us could have foreseen him reviving Xana." Aelita turned to look at the rest of the group. "All of us made mistakes before, but we've all moved past them haven't we? Why shouldn't we do the same for him?"

"I just think he's a cool dude." Odd added shrugging his shoulders. "Bit brooding and secretive, but hey I'm sure he'll warm up to us."

The group had arrived back at Kadic. As they entered the cafeteria they quickly scanned the room for Zhane, but found no signs that he was there.

"Think he's doing alright?" Odd asked as they got in line.

Ulrich shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? He's probably off sulking for now. Maybe he just needs some time alone."

"I can sympathize." Aelita muttered under her breath.

About halfway through lunch Jeremie came into the cafeteria. After getting his food he sat down with his friends and updated them on the situation. "The super-scan is up and running now, so if Xana attacks at some point we'll know."

"Finally, something good to hear." William breathed.

"I wouldn't exactly say good, but it's certainly a start." Jeremie stated. "I assume Zhane is off sulking somewhere?"

"To the best of our knowledge anyway. I'd say leave him be." Yumi said.

Aelita sighed and pushed away her tray of food. Getting up from the table she headed towards the door. "I think I need some time alone myself. I'll join up with you guys later." With that she left the cafeteria and headed towards the forest. After a few minutes of traveling she had reached and abandoned house, the Hermitage. Tentatively she pushed open the gate and headed inside. It was as run down as she remembered it being. Slowly she made her way up the stairs and into the room that was once hers. Looking out the window she let out a sigh. Xana had returned, making her father's sacrifice in vain. She had tried to stop her emotions from getting the best of her so far, but now it was too much. Falling to her knees silent tears started dropping from her eyes. A lone figure watched her from the doorway for a moment before slowly walking up to her, kneeling down and putting his arm around her.

"It'll be okay Aelita." he consoled her.

Aelita looked up and saw Zhane kneeling besides her. "How did you k-know I was here?" she choked out.

Zhane shook his head. "Truth be told I didn't know. I only just found this place a few moments ago. Got a little curious about it after you told me everything. But that's not the point, care to tell me what's troubling you?"

Aelita wiped the tears from her eyes. "You already know though."

"True, but sometimes it just helps to talk about things."

Aelita took a deep breath before she began. "It's just that not too long ago we thought we destroyed Xana and we were done with all this. My father sacrificed his life for our cause, and in the end it accomplished nothing. Now we have to fight again and risk all of our lives. It's just... a bit much to bear."

"You don't have to bear it alone you know." Zhane looked into her eyes. "You've got some amazing friends Aelita, not many people would be willing to risk their lives for a complete stranger. They'll help you through this, and so will I."

"Thanks Zhane, that means a lot to me. You do know you can't go to Lyoko though, right?"

"Just because I can't go to Lyoko doesn't mean I can't help."

"When did you get so mature?" Aelita giggled.

"Seeing you crying here like that reminded me of a friend I had back home." Zhane bit his lip as he internally debated if he should continue speaking. "She went through some tough times and needed me there for her, I hate seeing people so weak and alone." Zhane sighed and stood up, he offered his hand to Aelita and helped her stand. "Anyways that's unimportant now. Let's head back to Kadic shall we?" Aelita gave a small smile before following Zhane out the door.

* * *

 **A/N: There's another chapter done. Is Zhane one to give into the temptations given by Xana? Only time will tell. Seeing as school is starting soon updates may become fairly irregular (you mean they weren't already?). But that's not for another 2 weeks or so, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As always if you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know and I shall address them. Would you kindly read and review?**


	9. Tranquility

Chapter 9

Aelita and Zhane left the Hermitage and started heading back towards Kadic. "Hey Aelita." Zhane said suddenly. "I've got a small question I want to ask."

Aelita turned and looked at Zhane. "Ask away then."

It was a moment before Zhane replied, he seemed to be internally debating on how to ask his question. "Why did Xana choose me?"

Aelita stopped walking and tried to think. "There could be any myriad of reasons honestly. He might think you could be easy to influence, or you were just the best he could do at the time." Shrugging her shoulders she continued walking. "I can't say anything for certain unfortunately." Zhane nodded his head at this before putting his ear buds into his ears and continuing to walk with her.

After a few moments of walking Aelita turned to Zhane. "You really enjoy your music don't you?"

Zhane shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. I don't really know most of the music on this though."

"How could you forget the music on your own MP3 player?"

Zhane sighed before answering. "It might have something to do with the fact that it isn't mine. It was a gift from a friend before I left for Kadic."

"Aw, that's nice of them" Aelita said smiling. "Did you have many friends back home?"

Zhane shook his head. "Not really. At most I had around three or four friends. I tried to keep to myself and stay out of trouble."

"How did that turn out for you?"

"Could've gone better." Zhane stated plainly, rubbing his upper arm.

"You keep doing that." Aelita pointed out. "Rubbing your arm that is, in about the same spot as Ulrich grabbed you too, if I'm remembering correctly." Aelita looked at Zhane. "Mind telling me why?"

"Yes, I do mind." Zhane said bluntly walking ahead. "It's more than a little personal, so I'd love it if you didn't pry." Aelita ran ahead of Zhane and continued to look him in the eye.

"You know we're all your friends here right Zhane? If anything's troubling you just-"

Zhane held up his hand to silence her. "Listen angel, I've heard it all before and I can tell what you're thinking, but you're wrong on this one. What happened to me wasn't something I wanted, believe me." Zhane paused before continuing. "If I feel like talking about, and I'm not saying I ever will, I'll let you know. In the meantime let's worry about more pressing matters." Aelita nodded and they finished their journey back to Kadic in silence, save for the music coming from Zhane's MP3 player.

Upon reaching Kadic Zhane stretched before turning to Aelita. "I'm going to go take a nap, god knows I need one. If you need me for anything then send someone." Without waiting for her response Zhane walked off, leaving Aelita to find her friends by herself. She first decided to check in Jeremie's room, as that was where they most likely were at this time. Heading into the dorms she navigated the hallways until she came across Jeremie's room. She knocked twice and waited for an answer. After a brief moment someone inside opened the door and she stepped in.

Inside Jeremie was working at his computer, Ulrich was tossing a soccer ball into the air on the bed, and Odd was sitting on the floor playing a game. "Where did Yumi and William go?" Aelita asked, walking towards Jeremie to see what he was working on.

"Yumi went home." Ulrich answered. "And William went with here." he added in an annoyed tone.

"Oh calm down Ulrich." Odd said, not taking his eyes off his game. "Worst case scenario William confesses his love to her and Yumi realizes she has the same feelings for him so they wind up getting married." For his sarcastic response Ulrich threw the soccer ball at Odd, which he hit away with his hand. Aelita tried to suppress a chuckle, it was good to see that they were taking everything well.

Jeremie turned to Aelita before saying "Is everything okay Aelita? You were gone for awhile."

"Everything's fine Jeremie." Aelita assured him. "All I needed was some time alone."

"I don't blame you." Jeremie said turning back to his computer. "After today it's hardly surprising. In any case I've already begun working on a way to remove Xana's backup."

"That was fast." Aelita remarked.

"Started is a bit of a strong word Einstein." Odd said from behind them. "You said that you'd be lucky to make any progress on it before next year." Jeremie sighed in frustration before returning to his work. "Either way, what do you plan on doing Ulrich?"

"I'm thinking of following Yumi and William to make sure he doesn't pull anything."

"Ulrich you saw the look on Yumi's face when William said he'd take her come, if he tries anything he'd be lucky to only get a black eye!"

"Yeah, like you would know Odd." Ulrich remarked. Odd just shook his head and returned to his game.

"You're free to go if you want, but don't be surprised if Yumi gets mad when she realizes you're following her." Ulrich opened his mouth to respond but then closed it again, realizing that for once Odd had a point.

* * *

"I thought I told you to leave me alone!" Yumi shouted as she increased her pace. William followed behind her, his hands up in a gesture of peace.

"I just want to make sure you make it home safely, is that so wrong of me?" He retorted.

Yumi turned around to glare at him. "I don't recall asking for your help William! What makes you so sure that Xana is going to attack me anyways?"

"You tend to get targeted often." William stated plainly. "Besides, what's wrong with wanting to protect a friend?"

"I don't need to be protected!" Yumi insisted. "Did you even stop to think what would happen if Xana targeted you on your way back to Kadic? You still aren't able to resist possession so what then?!" William didn't have an appropriate response and looked at the ground. "That's what I thought. I thought that maybe you wanted a second chance, to make up for what you did to us, but I guess I was wrong." With those parting words Yumi turned around and ran to her house. William sighed solemnly to himself, he was hoping she had forgiven by now but it appeared he still had work to do. Turning around he slowly made his way back to Kadic.

* * *

Zhane sat with his back against a pillar in the courtyard at Kadic, sleeping peacefully. His hands lay in his hoodie pocket clutching his MP3 player. Occasional passerby who look at him and comment, but none tried to wake him. After sleeping for around half an hour Zhane slowly awoke to a rumbling in his pocket. Fumbling, Zhane reached into his pocket and answered his phone. "Hello?" he answered sleepily.

"Look who decided to answer for once!" a female voice on the other end declared happily.

Zhane shook his head to wake up better before replying. "Cynthia? I was starting to wonder if you've forgotten about me!" Zhane said mockingly offended.

"Don't get sarcastic with me young man. Everyone knows its the man's job to call the woman; it's only polite." Cynthia responded with the same level of sarcasm. They both let out a chuckle before Cynthia spoke again. "In all seriousness how've you been man?"

"Decently." Zhane responded. He opted to not tell her about Lyoko, partially because he knew she'd never believe him. "What about yourself?"

"Bored as all hell. You'd be surprised at how little there is to do around here."

"So I leave for only a few days and everything becomes boring eh? Do you really miss me that much?"

"You were fun to mess with." Cynthia responded bluntly.

"Hey, I resent that! Anyways I thought you also loved messing with Chris."

"I used to." Cynthia started." But I haven't seen him much lately." There was a creaking noise on Cynthia's end, as if she was moving on or off of a bed. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "That actually reminded me of something important. Chris said not to tell you because it's not set in stone, but fuck it, it might as well be with how his parents are."

"Well don't keep me in suspense girl, what is it?"

"Can't be patient for even a second?" she asked. "Anyways Chris has been talking to his parents lately about sending both of us to Kadic too, that way we can see you again! Come to think of it that might be why I haven't seen him lately..."

"You're not kidding right?!" Zhane exclaimed. "You two are actually coming to Kadic?"

"Well technically it's not 100% guarenteed, but you know Chris' parents are. Especially since it's for both of you."

"Yeah, his parents always did like me." Zhane admitted. "What about your condition though? Surely you can't just leave the country suddenly."

Cynthia sighed before responding. "Yeah that's also a point of concern. If we can't find any specialists over there I'll probably be forced to stay behind, at least until next year. By then everything should be fine. Other than that my folks don't see anything wrong with me going, they know Chris and you will take perfect care of me." Cynthia clapped her hands together. "But enough of that! We'll worry about when we come to it. I'm more interested in if you've made any friends so far."

Zhane paused and thought for a moment. "Yeah, I've made a friend here. Her name is Aelita."

Cynthia let out a low whistle. "She sounds cute, does this mean I'm going to have competition now Zhane?"

Zhane started blushing. "N-No! It's not like that at all!" he stammered out.

"Ah, I see then!" Cynthia declared. "So you're saying she's for me then?"

Zhane blushed even harder at this. "No, its -I mean to say..."

Cynthia burst out laughing. "Oh God I missed this! You need to relax man, I'm just yanking your chain!" After a moment her laughing subsided and she spoke again. "Besides, I don't even know what she looks like man. I will wholeheartedly admit I'm a flirt, but you think I'd fall for someone I've never met?"

"Yes, yes I do." Zhane admitted bluntly. "Besides I can send you a picture of..." Zhane trailed off before remembering. "Oh yeah, sorry about that..."

"You're so tactless sometimes. In any case I'll talk to you sometime soon. I might go listen to the television or radio, or something. I'll see you later, figuratively of course." With that she hung up.

Zhane sighed to himself. He knew Cynthia wasn't angry with him, but he felt guilty nonetheless. Putting his phone back into his pocket he stood up and stretched. Seeing as he still had a while to go before dinner started he decided to go and find the others. He decided to start with Jeremie's room, at the very least he'd likely find Jeremie there. After navigating the halls for a few minutes Zhane finally found the door to Jeremie's room. He entered, not bothering to knock beforehand. Inside he saw Jeremie at his desk, working at something on his computer.

Jeremie turned his head to see Zhane entering. "You could have knocked you know."

Zhane shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't see much of a point honestly. Where is everyone else?"

"You just missed them, not along ago they went down to the courtyard." Jeremie turned back around and continued working.

Zhane walked closer to the computer. "What are you working on exactly?" he asked.

"Many things." Jeremie replied. "I'm trying optimize the superscan so that we'll know instantly if Xana activates a tower, as well as trying to make any progress on that backup of yours."

"Any progress on that?"

"If I'm being honest? No. It's something that's never happened before, so I pretty much have to work from scratch. Not that that's different from any other time, mind you."

"Sorry about that." Zhane replied solemnly.

"It's fine, not like you asked for Xana to install a backup into you."

"Fair enough." Zhane turned to leave. "I'll be with the others if you need me." With that Zhane left the room, and traversed the halls until he was back in the courtyard. He looked around until he saw the others around the same bench they were at the day he came to Kadic. Zhane smiled to himself, before walking over and joining everyone.

* * *

 **A/N: Wait I have a story? Yeah, it has been awhile since the last update (I mean, only a little over 2 months, verging on 3 at this point), and I really am sorry about that. However the good news is I should be able to update more regularly now, unless it's exam week but that's not for another month or so. As always R &R, I greatly appreciate it!**


	10. First Strike

**Chapter 10**

* * *

 _Zhane was thrown against the wall roughly. Waves of pain washed over his body, he tried to look up at his attackers, but could only make out their silhouettes. His vision went dark, there was a flash of steel and the unmistakable smell of blood. Zhane opened his mouth to scream, but it was someone else's voice that he heard._

Zhane awoke abruptly, in a cold sweat. Breathing heavily Zhane frantically looked around the room until he realized he was in his dorm at Kadic. His breathing slowed slightly, but he was far from relaxed. He ran both of his hands through his hair in an attempt to calm himself. "This has got to stop." he muttered to himself. Zhane glanced at his alarm and saw that is was 5:30 AM, a whole half hour before he intended to wake up. He internally debating on whether he should go back to sleep or not, before promptly shutting off his alarm. He'd just have to run off a little less sleep than normal, nothing too unusual for him. Zhane quickly gathered his toiletries and headed off to the showers. Thankfully for him no one else was up this early, so he had the showers all to himself.

After showering Zhane looked at his alarm clock noticing that he still had an hour before breakfast started. Having nothing better to do he grabbed his MP3 player, shoved it into his hoodie pocket, and put his earbuds into his ears. Stepping out of his room Zhane decided to head to the courtyard and wait for the others there. Sitting down at their usual bench Zhane was perfectly content to wait for everyone else. After about five minutes of waiting Zhane's phone began to ring. Sighing, Zhane popped out his earbuds and checked his phone. The caller id couldn't identify who was calling, leaving Zhane with a sinking feeling of dread in his stomach. "Hello...?" Zhane answered cautiously.

"Ah, hello once again Zhane." the familiar voice of Xana on the other line rang out. "I trust you've had a plentiful amount of time to think about my offer?"

"And I trust you already know that I'm going to say no." Zhane responded.

"Is that really the wisest decision Zhane? I know more about you than you could possibly imagine, it wouldn't be wise to cross me." Xana stated flatly.

"What exactly do you mean?" Zhane asked, a small amount of panic in his voice.

"I know every corner of that mind of yours, down to every memory and experience. I know about the incident that happened to you; the one you're keeping secret from the others."

"Shut up." Zhane said shakily.

"Have I touched a nerve, boy? Why do you keep that a secret from the others anyway? Is it because you think they would reject you for it, or do you feel responsible for what happened to you?" Xana egged on.

"Shut up!" Zhane said, more forcefully this time. A small distance across the courtyard he heard someone call his name. Zhane turned and saw Aelita, waving at him. "Aw shit." Zhane swore under his breath.

"That is Aelita, is it not?" Xana asked. "Yes, you felt so betrayed when you learned she was keeping secrets from you, just imagine how she'll feel when she learns you've been doing the same to her. If those silly notions in your head haven't been crushed already, they sure will be then." Xana surely would have gone on talking if Zhane didn't immediately hang up at that. Zhane suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Aelita standing behind him.

"Hey Zhane, you're up early to I see." she said, jumping onto the bench beside him. "Who were you talking to just now?"

"Nobody important." Zhane said, hastily shoving the phone back into his pocket.

Aelita rolled her eyes. "You're a terrible liar Zhane, anyone could see how worked up you were getting."

Zhane sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "It's just been a stressful day for me." Zhane turned to her. "Why are you up so early anyways?" he asked her.

"I had trouble sleeping last night." she responded quietly. "I was having nightmares you see..." her voice trailed off.

Zhane nodded. "You and me both girl. Chin up, yours will go away eventually."

"Are you implying yours won't?" Aelita asked, raising an eyebrow.

Zhane mentally kicked himself for his slip up. Sighing, he turned to look directly at Aelita. "Listen to me for just a second okay? I know you're not going to like what you hear, but its important. What happened to me isn't something that I'm ready to talk about yet, it might never be something I'm ready to talk about. The only other people who know what happened are those back home, and my friends already swore they wouldn't mention it to anyone. You want the short of it? I'm lucky to be here now. That alone should give you enough of an indication as to what happened." Zhane took a deep breath before continuing. "Look angel, we've all been through some nasty crap that nobody should have to experience. Aside from about two people right now, I find it very hard to trust anyone now, doubly so after learning about Lyoko. I'll talk about what happened when I'm ready, and not a moment sooner."

"All of us will be there for you when you do decide to talk Zhane." Aelita said. "You're not alone in this, okay?"

Zhane gave a small smirk before leaning back across the bench. "Thanks, that does mean a lot to me."

"Hey you guys!" they heard a voice behind them yell. They turned around to see Odd running towards the bench at a full sprint. Odd jumped the area of the bench next to Aelita, but his foot got caught on the head of the bench causing him to fall to the foot of the bench.

"Nice landing there Odd." Aelita said, trying to stifle a giggle.

"I've seen better." Zhane said, completely deadpan. "I'd give it a seven out of ten, go collect your bronze medal."

Odd threw his arms into the air. "That means I placed!" Odd stood up and started bowing to an invisible audience. "I'd like to thank everyone who got me to where I am today." Aelita and Zhane both burst out laughing at this. Odd sat on the bench next to Aelita and threw his arms over the back of it. "So how have you two been doing in these early hours?"

"Pretty good, we're mostly waiting for breakfast really." Zhane said.

"It should be starting pretty soon actually." Aelita commented.

"I sure hope so!" Odd whined. "I might starve if I have to wait too much longer!" As if on cue, the door to the cafeteria opened shortly after Odd finished his sentence. Wasting no time, Odd immediately ran into the cafeteria, ready to eat. Zhane looked to Aelita with mild confusion due to Odd's antics. Aelita merely shrugged her shoulders and got up to go to the cafeteria, with Zhane following closely behind. They found Odd sitting at their usual table, eating with gusto. Zhane shook his head slightly before starting to eat his food. Slowly, the cafeteria began to fill with people and the silence was quickly replaced by conversation.

About ten minutes into their meal Ulrich sat down at their table with his food. "Just couldn't wait for me, could you Odd?" Odd shrugged his shoulders, due to his mouth currently being filled with food. After another ten minutes Jeremie had also arrived at their table, looking as if he hadn't gotten much sleep.

"Hey Einstein, you actually remembered to sleep last night, right?" Odd joked.

Jeremie shook his head and rubbed his eyes from under his glasses. "I didn't get much sleep, there's too much work to be done regarding Xana. I don't want any surprises when it comes to him."

"Don't burn yourself out Jeremie." Aelita said with concern. "If you wind up getting sick you'll lose more time than you'll have gained."

"I know, Aelita." Jeremie reassured her. "I've got everything perfectly under control. There just was a bit more work for me to do since Xana unexpectedly came back and all. If he attacks, we'll be ready."

"I sure hope so." Zhane muttered to himself. Suddenly a scream sounded from the other side of the cafeteria. Looking up everyone saw a half-dozen knives flying in Zhane's direction. All of them whizzed by him, most hitting the wall and clattering to the floor, while one knife hit the wall so hard it was lodged in the wall.

A loud beeping sounded from Jeremie's laptop. Jeremie opened the laptop to confirm what they all were thinking; Xana was attacking. "We have to get to the factory, and fast!" Jeremie exclaimed, getting up from the table.

"I'll let Yumi know what's going on!" Ulrich shouted as he made a mad dash out the door.

"Take care of everyone here Zhane, make sure no one gets hurt." Aelita said, running out with Odd and Jeremie. Zhane's breathing had quickened, and his face was white as a sheet. After sitting there petrified for a moment Zhane broke out of his stupor.

"Everyone, get out of here!" Zhane shouted. "Find somewhere safe, hopefully without any electricity nearby!" The remaining students panicked, running anywhere they could to ensure they could get out of the cafeteria. Suddenly Zhane felt a hand on his shoulder. Jim was standing behind him with a stern expression of his face.

"Dolor, what's the meaning of all this?!" Jim barked. "You can't just instigate chaos for no-" Before he could finish his sentence one of the overhead lights fell to the floor nearby, with the others following suite.

"Now's not the time Jim! We've got to get somewhere safe, I'll explain then." Jim simply nodded and ran out of the cafeteria with Zhane.

* * *

Jeremie, Odd, and Aelita had arrived at the factory. They quickly used the ropes to reach the main floor and entered the elevator. Upon entering the computer room Jeremie sat in the chair and began typing. "The activated tower is located in the ice sector, get to it as quick as you can. I'll see when your backup is arriving." With that Aelita and Odd went into the scanner room to be virtualized. They both stepped into a scanner and Jeremie began the virtualization process. "Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Aelita. Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Aelita." Jeremie finished typing the necessary inputs. "Virtualization."

Odd and Aelita materialized above the ice sector, landing on their feet. "Your overboard is on the way Odd." Jeremie said over the mic. Within seconds the overboard materialized in front of Odd.

Odd jumped on it immediately. "Wow Einstein, talk about express service!" he quipped. Aelita smirked to herself before activating her wings.

"You should be able to see the tower from your current location, it's north by northwest."

Scanning the horizon Aelita spotted a red glow, the aura of an activated tower. It was surrounded by a large glacier, with only one narrow pathway as an entrance. "I see the tower Jeremie, we're headed in." Her and Odd sped toward the tower, keeping an eye out for monsters.

"There's some monsters up ahead of you. Five kankerlats and four hornets."

"Don't worry Einstein, we can take care of them!" Odd called out with glee. Upon seeing the kankerlats ahead of him he readied his arm. "Laser arrow!" he cried out, shooting a quick volley at the squad of kankerlats. The arrows hit their marks, destroying the kankerlats. Odd did a fist pump in victory.

"Don't celebrate just yet Odd, three of the hornets are behind you!" Jeremie exclaimed.

Turning his head Odd saw that Jeremie was right. He bobbed and weaved as best he could, but soon a laser hit his overboard, destroying it and sending him plummeting to the ground. Odd landed gracefully, owing thanks to his cat-like form. He turned his head skyward towards the hornets and readied his arm again. Odd stood his ground, firing another volley of laser arrows at the hornets. They proved to be too nimble to accurately hit, with only one hornet going down. The other two fired relentlessly upon Odd, devirtualizing him.

At this time a phone icon appeared on Jeremie's screen, indicating that Ulrich was trying to call. "What's going on Ulrich?"

On the other line it sounded like Ulrich was running, and fast. "I told Yumi that Xana's attacking, she's on her way to Kadic to help fend it off. I'm headed to the factory right now, be there in a few minutes." With that Ulrich hung up, leaving Jeremie to assist Aelita as best he could.

* * *

Outside the cafeteria it was relatively peaceful, aside from all the students currently fleeing said cafeteria. William came running up to Zhane and Jim once they got outside. "What's going on here Zhane, why is everyone freaking out?" Before Zhane could formulate an adequate response, he shoved William to the ground and dropped down next to him. A park bench flew overhead, had they not have ducked it certainly would have hit. Rising up from the ground William breathed out "It's Xana then." Before they could stand around and continue their conversation they heard a snapping sound. Turning their heads they saw a vending machine flying threw the debris towards them. Without hesitating they started to run, with Jim in tow.

"Falling lights and now flying objects? Just what is going on?!" Jim shouted as they ran. William and Zhane both looked at each other, they knew they'd have to use a return to the past. Eventually they ran around a corner of the Academy and rested. Everyone tried to catch their breath, panting heavily.

"We'll explain what's going on later Jim, right now we just need to worry about saving anyone else." William said between breaths. After a brief moment of resting they heard a high pitched scream not too far away. "Let's get going!" After running for a few moments they saw a girl in a pink outfit with black hair getting hounded by a group of chairs.

"Get away from me!" she yelled at the chairs ineffectually. The chairs zoomed towards her all at once, and the group was too far away to help her. Before the chairs struck, someone tackled her to the ground. It was Yumi, who also appeared to be out of breath. "Yumi!" the girl exclaimed. "Thanks for saving me!"

"Save the thanks for later Sissi." Yumi huffed. "Run, now!" Yumi and Sissi ran towards Zhane and the others, and they quickly ran from the scene. "Know any good places to hide in this sort of situation Jim?" Yumi asked as they ran.

"We can try the storage shed, it should be safe in there!" The group quickly made there way to this shed, and upon getting inside quickly barricaded the door with whatever they could find, be it lawn chairs or gardening tools.

"Everything's gone all crazy out there!" Sissi exclaimed. "Do any of you know what's going?" Zhane, Yumi, and William exchanged a quick glance before shaking their heads. Sissi turned to Zhane. "I remember Ulrich asking about you, but I haven't actually met you yet. Who are you?"

"My name's Zhane. I'm kind of an acquaintance of Ulrich's I suppose." Sissi seemed to accept this answer and turned to the door, checking to see if the barricade would hold. A loud slam resounded throughout the shed, startling everyone inside. Everyone quickly ran to the barricade and held it against the door, making sure the barricade would hold for as long as possible.

* * *

"Energy field!" Aelita cried, throwing a ball of energy at one of the hornets. It dodged the attack, but in doing so caused it to hit the other hornet, destroying it instantly. Aelita summoned two energy fields at once, throwing both at the hornet. The hornet dodged one of the attacks, only to then run into the other, causing it to be destroyed. Aelita looked around for the fourth hornet that Jeremie mentioned, when she felt a laser hit her in the back, getting rid of her wings. She fell down to the ground with the hornet buzzing high in the air above her. The hornet charged a laser to fire at Aelita, but before it could a katana flew through it, cutting it in half. The katana landed at Aelita's side where she picked it up. A yellow blur ran towards her, turning out to be Ulrich.

"Just in the nick of time." he said while smirking. She handed him his katana back as the both ran into the narrow pathway leading to the tower. When they were about halfway down the path a megatank rolled out, blocking their exit. It opened up it's shell and fired its circular laser at them vertically. Aelita had an energy field in both hands and blocked the laser with them. Aelita slammed the energy fields into both sides of the laser at once, causing it to shatter.

"Super sprint!" Ulrich cried, running towards the megatank at super speeds. Before it could close he managed to stab it in it's eye of Xana. "The tower is all yours Aelita." Ulrich said, gesturing to the tower before them. Aelita ran up to the side of the tower and entered it. Stepping onto the center platform she rose into the air and landed on the second platform.

The slamming on the door intensified, before the door and the barricade shattered, sending everyone in the room sprawling. The vending machine had broken down the door.

Aelita walked towards the terminal and placed her hand on it, causing the tower to recognize her. The terminal then gave her the option to input the code.

The vending machine zoomed into the room, straight towards Yumi.

Aelita input Code Lyoko, deactivating the tower.

Yumi closed her eyes as the vending machine zoomed towards her, but she felt no pain. She opened her eyes to see both William and Zhane holding up the vending machine; it having stopped moving under Xana's influence.

In the factory Jeremie launched the return to the past program.

It was breakfast again, and aside from the Lyoko Warriors, no one had remembered the ordeal. "This really is a thankless job." Zhane exclaimed to the group.

"You get used to it." Odd stated simply. "Why did Xana bother with the knives though? It's not like he was even close to hitting anyone with them!"

Zhane looked at the spot on the wall where the knife had gotten lodged. "It wasn't about causing physical damage. It was about sending a message to me."

"It's his way of telling you that he could kill you whenever then." Aelita mused.

"If only it were so simple." Zhane sighed.

 **A/N: Another chapter down! I was thinking of splitting this into two chapters at one point, but as you can hopefully tell, I decided against that. This also marks my longest chapter yet, so yay for that I guess. Expect more chapters in the future, and for more of them to actually be decent length! As always please read and review, I greatly appreciate both (especially the latter)!**


	11. Losing It

**Chapter 11**

"Man, why is science so boring?" Odd complained, as they headed out of the classroom and down to the courtyard.

"Science isn't boring Odd." Jeremie replied. "It's actually quite fascinating if you get into it."

"You're just saying that cause you're smart Einstein!"

Jeremie sighed and shook his head. Zhane lagged behind the group, walking at his own pace with ear buds in his ears. The group reached the courtyard shortly and saw Yumi and William waiting for them. The two older kids ran towards the group upon seeing them.

"So, how was science for you guys?" Yumi asked the group.

"Oh just fascinating, ask Einstein he'll tell you all about." Odd replied. Yumi raised a questioning eyebrow at this, but didn't pursue any further. "What about Italian for you two?" Odd asked.

"Miserable if you ask me." William answered. "Turns out being possessed by Xana and missing a ton of classes can really impact your studies."

"Speaking of Xana, me and William wanted to talk about something." Yumi piped up. "We'd like to change our vote regarding Zhane. We believe he should be able to go to Lyoko with us."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement, sans Ulrich. "Why on Earth would you do that?!" Ulrich questioned.

"Well Ulrich." Yumi started. "I've changed my vote because I realized during Xana's attack that I misjudged him. Right before the return to the past he saved my life. It's thanks to him that I'm even here right now."

"It's true." William added. "I was there too, helping of course, when it happened. If it wasn't for Zhane I'm not sure Yumi would have made it out, me either for that matter. And, I figured that if you're giving even me a second chance then why should he be exempt?"

"Well I'm still standing by my vote." Ulrich muttered grumpily, before heading off to the cafeteria for lunch.

"There's just no pleasing some people." Odd stated, "We should hurry to lunch though, today it's meatballs and gravy!" Zhane chuckled to himself as he saw Odd race off towards the cafeteria once more.

* * *

 _Aelita was thrown to the ground, coming close to falling into the digital sea. She brought herself to a kneeling position and stared at Zhane. "Fight." he said, in an audible whisper. When it became clear that she wasn't going to act Zhane advanced towards her, sword extended towards her. "Fight!" he barked at her. Aelita raised herself to a standing position and looked Zhane in the eyes. What little of the friend she once had was gone, now he was just another foe. Even still, Aelita had her reservations._

" _Zhane, this isn't you. Stop all this nonsense, and let's just go back to the way things were." Aelita pleaded with him._

 _Here pleas fell on deaf ears as Zhane slashed at her. She backed away from the slash, but found her feet at the edge of the cliff leading to the digital sea. "If you don't fight you will not survive!" he yelled at her. "So, fight!" Zhane charged at her, sword in hand._

A loud beeping awoke Zhane from his sleep, the sound of his alarm. Fumbling in his barely awake state, Zhane shut off the alarm and tried to gather his thoughts. It had been two days since Xana's last attack, with no signs of activity since. Zhane's thoughts turned to the dream he just had. It was different from the other dreams, even the ones brought by Xana. It somehow felt more real to him; more like a vision than a dream. Giving up on trying to make sense of things Zhane got up and quickly headed to the showers.

After finishing his shower Zhane headed to the courtyard and decided to wait for the others until breakfast. It wasn't long until Aelita and Odd joined him in waiting. "One thing I want to know Zhane." Aelita started. "Is why you're always up so early."

"I could probably ask the same of you angel, but if you really wanna know it's so I can avoid others." Zhane replied.

Aelita raised an eyebrow at this. "If your plan is to avoid others, then you aren't very good at following it since you always hang out with me and Odd."

"I don't really mind you two, or most of the group for that matter."

"Let me guess, the one you do mind is Ulrich, right?" Odd asked. Zhane smirked and gave a small nod of affirmation. "If it's about the whole Lyoko thing you shouldn't let it get to you, Ulrich can be more stubborn than a dead brick sometimes."

"A w-what?!" Zhane asked, flabbergasted. "But bricks aren't dead, they're inanimate and-" Zhane didn't finish his thought and just let out a sigh of exasperation. Aelita and Odd both started laughing at his confusion. After a moment Zhane let out a chuckle. "I'll give you that one Odd."

"I aim to please!" Odd proclaimed with a large grin on his face.

A ringing noise came out of Zhane pocket, indicating that is phone was ringing. Zhane ignored the phone call and hoped it would go away. "You gonna answer that?" Aelita asked. "It'd be rude to ignore it ya know." Zhane just shook his head and continued to ignore the call, clenching his fist tight. Odd looked at Aelita and she gave him a small nod. Without warning Odd dived into Zhane's pocket and grabbed his phone.

"Hello, this is Odd speaking, can I take a message for Zhane?" Odd answered the phone. The person on the other line spoke for a moment with Odd giving a small nod here and there. After another moment Odd lowered the phone and handed it to Aelita. "Seems it's for you princess." Aelita gave him a questioning glance, to which Odd shrugged.

"Hello?" Aelita said into the phone. The two boys looked at Aelita curiously, as the person on the other end seemed to dominate the conversation. Occasionally Aelita would toss a quick glance at Zhane and nod her head to whatever was being said to her. After a few moments of talking Aelita seemed to be finishing the conversation. "Well thanks for the offer, but I'm not interested." Aelita ended the call and handed the phone back to Zhane.

"Well?" Odd asked. "Who was it?"

"Just some prank caller." Aelita shook her head. "Some people have a twisted sense of humor."

"It's true." Odd admitted. "Some people just can't be as sophisticated as I am."

"So, about as sophisticated as a box of hammers?" A voice behind them asked. The trio turned around to see Ulrich walking towards them.

"Oh, ha ha Ulrich." Odd said sarcastically. "You're just jealous too!" Odd surely would have gone on, had the cafeteria not opened up for breakfast. "We'll continue this conversation later young man." Odd said before heading off to get breakfast.

"Can't wait for it gramps!" Ulrich called after him. "You two coming?" he asked Aelita and Zhane.

Aelita shook her head. "You go on ahead, me and Zhane have something to discuss first." Zhane had a sinking feeling he knew exactly what Aelita was referring to. After Ulrich was out of earshot Aelita turned to him. "Just how long did you plan to hide that Xana had been contacting you?"

"Preferably forever, if I'm being honest."

"Zhane you can't go keeping secrets like that from us. It makes it harder to trust you, the others might start to believe you're working with Xana." Aelita didn't sound angry when she said this. Her voice made her sound more disappointed in him.

"You know that's not what's going on." Zhane mumbled. "I just didn't want to worry anyone-"

"Well I for one, am worried!" Aelita interrupted. "Trust is a two-way street Zhane, by keeping secrets like this you'll tear us apart. I want to know, exactly what was Xana talking to you about?"

 _Lie._

Zhane heard a voice that wasn't Aelita's, and he knew there wasn't anyone near them. Zhane was about to speak when he heard it again.

 _Lie to her, just as she's done to you._

Zhane did his best to ignore this voice. "He was trying to get me to join him. Trying to get me to doubt you guys."

"Why would he want to recruit you?" Aelita asked.

Zhane shook his head. "He never told me why, nor do I expect him to." Zhane stood up. "Listen Aelita, you'd know I'd never betray you guys, right?"

Aelita sighed and stood up as well. "Of course I know that Zhane, just don't go around keeping secrets like this anymore, okay?" Zhane nodded at her and they both headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. After getting their food they found the table where Odd and Ulrich were already seated and began to eat.

"So exactly what were you two talking about out there?" Ulrich asked.

Zhane swallowed before answering. "Theoretical thermonuclear-dynamic physics of course." Ulrich glared at him while Aelita giggled.

"I just wanted to make sure everything was going fine with him, that's all." Aelita said before continuing to eat.

 _Hypocrite._

Zhane heard the voice again, this time looking around the cafeteria. No one else seemed to hear it, and it didn't belong to anyone there. Zhane shook his head, he needed to stop imagining things.

 _The factory, go there._

It was at this point that Zhane became alarmed, looking around for the source of the voice. Noticing his strange behavior Odd piped up. "Something wrong Zhane? You're acting kinda strangely."

 _Ignore him, what does he know about you?_

"If this is a joke, it's not funny anymore guys. You can stop." Zhane said.

Everyone looked at each other confused. "No one's playing a joke Zhane, what's going on?" Ulrich asked.

 _Knock him out, you know he deserves it._

"This voice! Don't tell me you guys can't hear it!" Zhane exclaimed.

"It might be a trick of Xana." Aelita said. "With his backup he could easily make you hear or see things that aren't there."

"That's reassuring..." Zhane said sarcastically.

 _If you will not go to the factory, then I shall take you myself._

Before Zhane could question this a blinding pain shot through him. His hand immediately went to his head in an attempt to dull the pain.

"Zhane, what's wrong?" Odd asked, getting up with the others.

"It's Xana." Zhane breathed out. "He's doing something to me..." In on of Zhane's eyes the eye of Xana flashed before disappearing.

"It looks like he's trying to possess you, try to fight it!" Aelita encouraged him. The eye of Xana flashed in Zhane's eye a few more times before replacing one of his pupils entirely. The other eye remained normal. Slowly, almost mechanically, Zhane got up from the table and started to move.

"I can't stop him, I think he's going to the factory." he managed to say before the other eye was also replaced with the eye of Xana. Ulrich tried to grab hold of Zhane to stop him, but he was too quick. He ducked out of Ulrich's grasp and ran out of the door.

"You two go after him, I'll try and get Jeremie and Yumi." Aelita said. Ulrich and Odd both nodded to her and ran out the door after Zhane. Aelita left the cafeteria and went looking for Jeremie. Thankfully she didn't have to go far, she met him on the stairwell.

"Jeremie there's big trouble, Zhane's been possessed by Xana and is headed for the factory, most likely to launch a return in time. Aelita explained.

"What? That's not possible, there aren't any activated towers on Lyoko!" Jeremie explained.

"Well, maybe you should tell that to Xana then."

"Okay, let's try to beat him there, although if he already has a head start we probably won't make it.

* * *

Zhane ran through the sewers, faster than any normal human could have.

 _Isn't this much better? Isn't this exactly what you wanted?_

Of course not, Zhane thought.

 _You cannot lie to me, especially at this time. As of right now, you are the most powerful human on this planet. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this were your everyday existence?_

Zhane couldn't come up with any counter argument and could only watch as they arrived at the factory. He jumped onto the ground floor and headed towards the elevator. His hand reached out to hit the button but stopped just before pressing it. His hand struggled, as if it was being pulled in two different directions. Zhane let out a grunt of annoyance and pressed the button with his other hand instead. The struggling hand stopped and fell to his side.

The elevator went down to the lab level and Zhane walked over to the monitor and keyboard. His hands flew across the keyboard, typing in all the necessary coding. Before he could press the enter key he managed to speak. "I'm...sorry." He then pressed the enter key.

 _Liar._

The world was quickly enveloped in white, as a return in time went underway.

* * *

 **A/N: Woo! Another chapter down. We get to see Zhane struggling against Xana, and his own friends, plus was his dream only a dream, or something more? Only time can tell! Please continue to read and review everyone, I greatly appreciate it!**

 **Reviews/Questions:**

 **Creok:** **It would be spoiling things for me to tell you exactly, but you aren't too far off with Zhane. I wouldn't call Cynthia's condition exactly life threatening, but that's all I've got to say on the matter!**

 **Naruto Sakura Uzumaki:** **First off, thanks for the multiple reviews man, they really mean a lot to me! I do have a couple of different plans on what to do with Chris and Cynthia when they come to Kadic, so it should be interesting when we get to that point. Thanks for your continued support!**


	12. Imminent Danger

**Chapter 12**

Zhane awoke to the loud beeping of his alarm once more. He groggily turned it off and sat up, trying to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes. It was the start of the day again, due to Xana launching a Return to the Past. Zhane sighed and headed to the shower deciding it was too early to try and decipher Xana's plans. Besides, Jeremie probably had a better idea of what was going on anyways.

After finishing his shower Zhane headed down to the courtyard to wait for the others. Since he got up earlier than everyone else he knew he had some time to kill. Zhane sighed to himself and looked down at his hands. As if testing himself, he flexed each hand, one at a time. _Still in control for now at least_ , he thought to himself. Zhane reached into his pocket and took out his phone. With only a slight hesitation, he dialed Cynthia's number. She answered on the third ring.

"What's up Zhane? You usually don't call this late."

Zhane blinked in confusion for a second before it hit him. "Yeah, but it's early for me. Time zones, remember?"

"Oh yeah. In any case, what do you need?"

"What makes you think I need something?" Zhane asked coyly.

"Dude, you're joking right?" Cynthia chuckled. "You call me at what most people would call an unreasonable hour, not exactly normal."

Zhane shrugged, even though Cynthia couldn't see it. "Fair enough I suppose. I need to ask you a question."

"I don't have bail money." Cynthia deadpanned.

"How'd you come to that conclusion?!"

It was Cynthia's turn to shrug during a phone conversation. "Stranger things have happened."

Zhane sighed before speaking again. "Very funny. What I wanted to ask you was if you felt like you were in a loop; like you're doing the same thing again without realizing it."

"You're asking the wrong chick for that. You know all my days are more or less the same. There's only so many damn audiobooks and podcasts I can listen to without going stir crazy. Anyways, what brought this on?"

"I've been wondering if I'm stuck in a loop that I'm doomed to repeat." Zhane stated plainly.

Cynthia started laughing on the other line. "Seriously, what are you smoking and how much of it can I have? This philosophical BS definitely isn't your thing Zhane."

"I guess so." Zhane looked up and saw Aelita and Odd on the other side of the courtyard walking towards him. "I've got to go Cynthia, one of my friends wants to talk to me."

"Awwwww." Cynthia whined. "You're not going to introduce me yet?"

"That can wait till you arrive here, whenever that is."

"I'm holding you to that then! In any case, after I finish this chapter I'm probably going to go to sleep anyways. Be seeing you." Cynthia started lightly chuckling.

"That so isn't funny." Zhane said, shaking his head as he hung up.

"Who were you talking to?" Odd asked as he and Aelita approached Zhane.

"An old friend from back home." Zhane answered as he put his phone back in his pocket. Aelita raised an eyebrow at this but didn't question him. "So, what's the plan?"

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked.

"No one else is curious as to how Xana controlled me?"

"I have my theories." Aelita began. "But I should really correspond with Jeremie before I come up with anything too definite." As if on cue Jeremie and Ulrich walked out of the dorm building and towards the group.

"Well that was certainly unique." Jeremie stated as he walked up. "Somehow Xana was able to control you without a tower, and then use you to launch a Return to the Past."

"We got that much Einstein." Odd yawned. "Do you know how he did it though?"

Jeremie shook his head. "Not for certain at least. If I were to bet though, I'd say it has something to do with the backup."

"So what do we do about this then, just hope that Xana doesn't take control of him?" Ulrich asked, glaring at Zhane.

"I'll try to think of something. I could probably create some kind of program to inhibit Xana's influence over you Zhane, at least in theory anyway."

"We can do that later, right now we worry about breakfast!" Odd exclaimed, before wrapping his arms around Jeremie and Ulrich and dragging them off to the cafeteria. As soon as they were gone Aelita glared at Zhane.

"Were you really talking to a friend earlier, or was it Xana again?" Zhane sighed, he should have seen this coming. He pulled out his phone and showed her the call log. Aelita looked noticeably relieved at this. "Sorry, I think I'm on edge at the moment."

"Nothing to apologize for. Your distrust was fair there." Zhane internally debated something before continuing. "I have a question to ask you Aelita."

"Go for it."

"During lunch, do you want to explore Sector 5 on Lyoko?"

Aelita was taken aback. "Absolutely not! Do you know how dangerous it is normally, never mind that Xana is now there with a physical form?"

Zhane chose his words carefully. "I know, just hear me out for a sec. If Xana can truly take control of me at any time, then we don't have time to wait for Jeremie to develop a solution, we have to search through Xana's data. It's our greatest chance of success."

"And what of the others? Are we just going to lie to them, especially since Ulrich still doesn't trust you enough to say you should go to Lyoko?"

"If we wait for Ulrich's approval we'll be waiting for Xana to grow too powerful. It's just a simple mission, go in, get the necessary data, then get out. They won't even know we're gone."

"I'm still not sure Zhane..."

Zhane mulled it over for a second. "Then how about this?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin. "We decide it with a coin toss."

Aelita gave him a bewildered stare. "You can't be serious, right?"

"I am. Sometimes the greatest impasses can be simple as the flip of a coin, or the roll if the dice. Which side do you pick?"

"Tails. No wait, heads!"

Zhane flipped the coin into the air and it landed on his hand with tails facing upwards. "It is decided then." He pocketed the coin and looked at Aelita.

Aelita sighed to herself. "Fine then. We can go at lunch today, but it's just a quick mission okay?" Zhane nodded at her and followed her to the cafeteria to the join the others for breakfast.

The wait for lunch as slow and tortuous for Zhane. He found his eyes constantly drifting towards the clock, hoping for it to come faster. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was lunch time. Zhane made an excuse of going to the bathroom and snuck into the forest, trying his best not to be seen. His heart was pounding with excitement; did he really enjoy being on Lyoko this much? Before he could ascertain his feelings he ran into Aelita at the manhole cover.

"Did you make sure you weren't followed?" Aelita asked him. He gave a quick nod and they headed into the sewers. Aelita took one of the two scooters and Zhane took one of the five skateboards, and they raced to the factory. It didn't take them too long to reach the factory, and before Zhane knew it they were in the computer room, with Aelita typing away at the keyboard. "I set up a delayed virtualization, let's hand to the scanners.

"You're really good at using that aren't you?" Zhane said to her in the elevator.

"It's nothing, just a lot of practice." Aelita said modestly, although she secretly felt a small amount of pride at this comment. The elevator opened up and they both stepped into two different scanners. The scanner doors closed behind them, and they were virtualized. They both materialized in the air in Sector 5, Aelita landing deftly on her feet and Zhane falling on his knees.

"That'll take some getting used to..." He muttered as he stood up. "You can virtualize directly into Sector 5? Well that's good to know." He turned to Aelita. "I think it'd be a good idea if you fired some energy fields of yours into my hands, that way I have a supply of energy in case we get attacked." Aelita nodded at this and fired three energy orbs into his hands. After absorbing them Zhane formed his black longsword and rested it upon his shoulder. They both turned to the exit and started running.

"Be on the lookout for creepers!" Aelita said as they ran. "Xana likes to deploy them in Sector 5." No sooner had she said than a low cry of a monster sounded around them. "Case in point..." She muttered. Two creepers slithered into view, one in front of them and one behind. The one in front fired it's laser first and Aelita blocked it with an energy field before firing another one at the creeper destroying it. The creeper behind them fired and Zhane absorbed its laser. He then ran up to it and impaled it through the eye of Xana with his sword. "Let's get moving." Aelita called to him.

At the cafeteria the rest of the Lyoko Warriors sat eating their lunch and chatting about their day. It wasn't until about ten minutes into their lunch before they started to worry about Aelita and Zhane. "They're both taking too long." Jeremie complained. "Aelita said all she had to get was some notes from her room, she should have been back by now."

"You need to relax Einstein." Odd said through a mouthful of food. "I'm sure she's fine."

"Could there have been a Xana attack?" Yumi offered. Jeremie took out his laptop and started typing. After a brief moment he shook his head.

"What if they both went to the factory?" William asked.

"I can see Zhane going, but why would Aelita go with him?" Ulrich questioned.

"To try and stop him." William countered. "Anyway, I think it's worth checking out, especially since we have no other leads."

"Count me out." Yumi said. "I have an important quiz that I can't miss, I'll try to finish it as quick as I can though."

"I'll have to sit out too." Odd said with a sigh. "I can't miss another class or else I'll be done for."

"We'll update you on the situation if we find out anything." Jeremie said as he, Ulrich, and William stood up and left the cafeteria. After doing a quick check to see if Jim was around they hurried into the forest where the entrance to the sewers was. Upon entering the sewers they saw that a scooter and skateboard were missing, meaning that Aelita and Zhane had definitely gone to the factory. They hurried through the sewers to try to reach the factory.

Aelita and Zhane ran into the Celestial Dome and slowed their pace. Aelita walked up to the terminal and began to look through the data in it. "Watch out for the mantas Zhane, they most likely won't take long to hatch." She said as she started transferring anything that looked important. Zhane scanned the walls of the dome looking for signs of the mantas. It didn't take long for him to notice spots on the wall that were bulging slightly. Zhane readied his sword in anticipation, and after a brief moment three mantas came out of the bulging areas in the walls. They circled the dome in order to get a vantage point and began firing down upon the two.

Zhane attempted to block their lasers but both he and Aelita got hit once. Growling in frustration he concentrated some of his energy into his sword and it started glowing with a dark aura. Zhane swung at the air and cried "Dark razor!". A small wave of energy flew out of his sword into one of the mantas destroying it. Zhane repeated the process once more and only a single manta remained. Zhane watched the other manta fly around them and dip below the platform they were on. Taking a risk Zhane jumped off the platform and onto the manta. He shoved his sword into the eye of Xana on it's back and exerted his energy into it. After a moment of it attempting to buck him off it calmed down and Zhane used the sword in it's back to steer it upwards.

When he got back to the platform he ripped the sword out and jumped off and the manta was destroyed. "This feels good." Zhane said to himself as he stretched his arms. "How much longer on that terminal angel?"

Aelita finished transferring the latest data that she found and turned to face him. "That's everything I could find, I think we should be good to head back now."

"Aelita, Zhane! Just what's going on?!" They heard Jeremie's voice ring out to them.

"Just some data retrieval Jeremie." Aelita said innocently.

"We'll talk about this later, for now take the gate to the ice sector, I've opened it for you."

Aelita activated her wings and the overboard appeared for Zhane. Hopping on they both headed for the open gate and appeared in the ice sector. "Head for Ulrich and William's location, it's south by southwest of your current position." Following the directions Jeremie gave them they flew into a large plain of ice with Ulrich and William waiting for them.

"You gave us quite a scare princess." William quipped. Ulrich simply glared daggers at Zhane. Zhane returned the gesture.

"I don't mean to interrupt this touching reunion." Jeremie's voice cut in. "But there's something strange at your current location, it just popped up out of nowhere."

"What is it Jeremie?" Aelita asked.

"Not sure. It definitely bears Xana's signature but it doesn't match any of the monsters we've seen..." Suddenly the color drained from Jeremie's face. "You have to get out of there, now!"

"What's the big deal?" William asked. Suddenly the ice underneath them started cracking. The group backed up apprehensively but the cracks didn't follow them. In the spot where they once stood a small glacier suddenly jutted out of the ice with a lone figure standing on top of it.

"You little thieves." The figure said to them. "Don't think I didn't notice what you took from me." Xana looked down on them all and his gaze rested on Aelita and Zhane. "But I will be sure to repay your kindness in turn." A flurry of ones and zeroes formed around his right hand in the shape of a sword. After a moment the ones and zeroes were replaced by a silver longsword with the eye of Xana on the hilt, and he pointed it at the Lyoko Warriors.

 **A/N: That's all here! I know it's been a long time since my last chapter, and I'm sorry for that. Classes have been tough, what with midterms and finals, and other real life stuff. But now that I have free time to write, especially with Spring Break going on, I'll be able to get more chapters out easily. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to those that follow. Please read and review!**


	13. Anger

**Chapter 13**

Xana leaped off the glacier and landed in front of the group, his sword at the ready. He gazed at each of the warriors in turn, before charging towards Ulrich. Ulrich raised his katanas to block the swipe, but was still sent reeling. William swung his great sword towards Xana but Xana jumped backwards, dodging the swing. William continued swinging, only to have the same effect each time. Xana raised his arm towards William was enveloped in a dark aura. As Xana raised his arm upwards William rose into the air. With a a swing of his arm, William was sent flying.

"Energy field!" Aelita cried, attempting to hit Xana from above. Before the energy field could hit Xana a barrier surrounded him, blocking the attack. Zhane rushed towards Xana and attempted to slash him across the chest. Xana parried the blow and knocked the sword out of Zhane's hands. Before he could attack Ulrich and two clones surrounded him.

"This old trick?" Xana questioned. Ulrich and the clones sprinted towards Xana from all sides, ready to strike. Xana sliced at the Ulrich to his left, devirtualizing him instantly, making the clones disappear as well. "I must say Zhane." Xana began. "This body you gave me is quite useful, and I should thank you for that." Zhane let out a grunt and summoned another sword, and attempted to attack Xana again. Zhane's sword was once again knocked out of his hands. Xana hooked his sword around Zhane's back and threw him to the ground, face first. Xana put one of his feet on Zhane's back and leaned onto him, keeping him down. He stared at the remaining two Lyoko Warriors, as if daring them to attack.

"Got any ideas William?" Aelita asked. William shook his head. Aelita grimaced, their odds were not looking good.

"You're not needed here." Xana said to William. With a flex of his hand the ground beneath William vanished, leaving a void to the digital sea. Aelita's eyes widened; she knew too well what would happen if he managed to fall all the away. Aelita dove into the hole after him and fired an energy field at him, devirtualizing him. Aelita breathed a small sigh of relief before flying back. "Why do you stay with them Zhane?" Xana questioned. "Surely by now you can see their weakness, much like your own. If you join with me you'll get exactly what you want; to become stronger."

Zhane struggled to get up but was only pressed down by Xana. "Does the word no mean nothing to you? I've given you my answer before, and I'll give it again, I'm never joining you."

Xana shook his head. "Humans such as yourself are such illogical creatures. Why can't you see that-" Xana was interrupted by a fan flying past him, nearly striking him. Turning his head he saw that Yumi had recently been virtualized, and joined the battle. Stepping off Zhane he turned to Yumi and started firing energy blasts towards her. Flipping to avoid the energy blasts Yumi threw another fan at Xana, which was knocked out of the air by his sword. Behind Xana, Zhane stood up and picked up his two fallen swords. With his attention turned towards Yumi, Xana couldn't react to the dual slash towards his back. Electricity surrounded the area where his back was hit for a moment and Xana grimaced in apparent pain. Turning around he glared at Zhane and charged towards him.

Zhane blocked and held Xana's sword between his two. "I am not weak!" Zhane snarled. Xana let out a huff of annoyance and let out a burst of energy, staggering Zhane. With this opening Xana once again knocked Zhane to the ground and tossed him towards Aelita and Yumi.

"You will always be weak Zhane! Especially since you can't face your own past; you can't face your parents!" Xana spat. Yumi was about to toss another fan when Aelita motioned for her to stop, both of their gazes turned to Zhane. He had gotten up from the ground and was taking short, ragged breaths, a feat not necessary on Lyoko. A black mist had enveloped his hands, and was snaking it's way up his arms. The mist stopped at his shoulders, and suddenly the chains covering his arms burst, and broke apart.

The mist solidified around his hands, replacing them with long, jagged, dark claws. Everyone was taken aback by this change, including Xana. Zhane slowly stepped forward, before charging at Xana. Xana once again rose his barrier to block Zhane, and his claws merely bounced of the barrier at first. Before striking the barrier again, Zhane pulled back his arms and stabbed the barrier in the same place with both of his claws. The barrier cracked and shattered, taking Xana by surprise. Xana rose his sword to block Zhane but it was knocked away and Zhane raked his claws across Xana's chest.

Reeling from the blow Xana backed away. A flurry of ones and zeroes started to surround him. "This was an unexpected outcome." He muttered to himself, before disappearing. Aelita and Yumi let out a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. Zhane slowly turned around and charged at them. Aelita flew higher to dodge, but Yumi wasn't so lucky. Both of Zhane's claws slashed across her body, devirtualizing her. Zhane turned to Aelita and let out a bloodcurdling roar. Aelita shook her head and fired an energy field at Zhane devirtualizing him.

* * *

Everyone in the computer room was in shock. No one knew exactly what to make of the events that played out in front of them. Suddenly the elevator opened, to reveal a barely conscious Zhane being supported on both sides by Aelita and Yumi. They walked into the room slowly and gently sat Zhane down near the wall.

"Aelita!" Jeremie exclaimed. "Thank goodness you're okay! Do you know how dangerous a mission to sector 5 is now? What were you thinking?"

"It was Zhane's idea." Aelita responded. "He thought that Xana might have some data that could help in fighting Xana's control over him."

"And what made you think it was a good idea to go with just him? Especially since we decided he shouldn't be on Lyoko!" Jeremie countered.

"Because if we wait for everyone to be on the same page, who knows what Xana will have accomplished." Zhane said. Slowly he tried to stand up but quickly lost his balance and sat back down. "Besides, none of you would have accepted an idea that came from me. And I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking."

"I want to know what went down with you on Lyoko." Ulrich piped up. "Just what went on there when you were fighting Xana?"

"He's tougher than I thought." Zhane sighed. "I won't let him get me next time though." Everyone else glanced at each other.

"What do you mean Zhane?" Aelita asked.

"He's the one who devirtualized me, right?"

"No, far from it." Yumi said. "After he taunted you some crazy claw thing appeared on you and you seemed to lose all control."

Zhane's eyes widened. "I don't remember any of that. All I remember is him taunting me, then waking up in the scanner."

"It could be one of Xana's tricks." William offered.

"I highly doubt that." Jeremie said, as he started to type on the keyboard. "Xana seemed surprised at what happened to Zhane, same as we are. My theory is that it's some off-shoot of your Lyoko powers."

Zhane raised an eyebrow at this. "Care to share your thoughts Einstein?"

"Before the claws appeared on you a black mist appeared on your hands and arms, that's similar to how your other abilities have worked. Whenever you expel any absorbed energy it's black. This change also massively drained your energy pool. From the the short time you were in you completely diminished your reserves, and your life points were starting to go down as a result." Jeremie turned to face Zhane. "We just don't know exactly how, or why, your power manifested like this."

Aelita knelt down next to Zhane and looked at him. "What did Xana mean by 'you can't face your parents' Zhane?" Zhane visibly flinched and all eyes turned to him.

"It's a personal matter. I don't feel like talking about it." Zhane raised his knees to his chin and put his head down.

Aelita put her hand on Zhane's shoulder. "You sure Zhane? We're always here if you want to talk."

"I'm sure Aelita."

Aelita nodded solemnly and stood up, walking over to Jeremie. "So, what should we do now?"

"I'm going to sift through the data you found, see if I can find anything to combat Xana in it. It might take some time though, and just to be sure I'm backing up all of it just in case Xana tampers with it." Jeremie began typing again, already beginning his work.

"I think we should be more careful, so that Zhane doesn't return to Lyoko." Ulrich said, glaring daggers at Zhane.

Zhane jerked his head up and glared right back and Ulrich. "Mind telling me why you have a grudge against me? Because from where I'm standing it looks like I just saved us from him this time."

"Only after you brought him back because of your petty personal issues!"

Zhane shakily stood up, holding up against the wall to balance himself. "Don't you _ever_ , think that you can even comprehend what I've been through, especially when you don't even know! You think I asked Xana to put a backup into me?! Do you somehow think that I'm proud of my decisions?" Zhane slammed his fist into the wall, startling everyone. "This is exactly what I hate about people!" Attempting to hold back the tears in his eyes Zhane entered the elevator, and left the factory.

"What is with you lately Ulrich?!" Yumi shouted. "All of us have managed to forgive Zhane for what he did, we all understand how confused and hurt he was, and how he had no idea what he was doing! Only you seem to hold a grudge against him still, so for once can you just stop being so stubborn!" With those words she turned and entered the elevator. "I have some homework to do, coming William?"

"Sure thing Yumi." William answered, as he entered the elevator and left the factory with Yumi.

"Surely you two don't completely forgive him for bringing back Xana?" Ulrich asked, turning to Aelita and Jeremie.

"Look at it this way Ulrich." Aelita began. "Everyone forgives you for launching a return in time for lottery numbers. The situations are slightly different, but the principle is the same. I'd say Zhane deserves a chance, especially since he didn't fully understand the consequences at the time."

"Took the words right out of my mouth Aelita." Jeremie said. Aelita smiled and blushed lightly, turning her attention to the screen. Ulrich sighed in frustration, before turning to the elevator and leaving, passing Odd on the way out.

"Sheesh, what's up with Ulrich today?" Odd asked Aelita and Jeremie as he entered the computer room. "And where is everyone anyway?"

"You want to tell him?" Jeremie asked Aelita. Aelita smiled and began to launch into the long winded tale of what had occurred so far today.

* * *

Zhane ran deep into the forest, wanting to be away from everyone. After being sure that no one was around he rested at the base of a tree. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. _Was any of this worth it?_ Zhane thought to himself. Then he remembered how he felt on Lyoko, how great he felt taking down Xana's monsters. It made him feel strong, stronger than he actually was. Gingerly, Zhane lifted the sleeves of his hoodie to reveal his upper arm. Looking at the singular scar on each arm, Zhane knew he wasn't strong. Silent tears fell from his eyes, and he made no effort to stop them. He was much weaker than he'd ever let on.

* * *

 **And that's the next chapter finished. Getting back into the semi-consistent schedule, but I'm happy with the timing between these (especially given the last break).**

 **Guest Reviewer: Since you don't have an account that's just what I'm calling you XD. Your theory is surprisingly sound in it's logic. I'm not saying if it's wrong or right, but it's very well put together either way. You'll just have to wait and see what Cynthia's all about in the future!**

 **Thanks for reading and please review, I greatly appreciate it!**


	14. Preparation

**Chapter 14**

* * *

Data swirled around him, his gaze resting on various pieces before turning to the next. With a wave of his hand he dismissed all but one piece of data, the profile on the boy Zhane. Going over his calculations for what was surely the fifth time he let out a brief sigh. Despite going over the data numerous times nothing could explain Zhane's transformation. Even accounting for the backup such a surge of power shouldn't be possible without his influence. Was there a variable that he could be missing? He brought up more data, this time the profile of Franz Hopper. During his first defeat he was sure that Hopper had died protecting his daughter, and yet...

Assumptions wouldn't be enough for this. He had learned not to underestimate the humans, especially the ones that were opposing him. If he could escape into the internet it would be easier to search for any signs of Hopper, but he was confined to Lyoko. No doubt that the boy Jeremie had already begun to work on blocking his control of Zhane, so that avenue was blocked for the time being. He flexed his hand experimentally, and the outline of the Scyphozoa appeared once more. The outline slowly solidified, and with a cry, the Scyphozoa appeared in front of him. _At least some progress is being made,_ he mused silently to himself.

* * *

The Lyoko Warriors sat in silence as they ate their dinner that night. Neither Zhane nor Ulrich joined them. About halfway through his meal Odd broke the silence. "You think those two are gonna be alright?"

"They're probably just sulking somewhere, we should leave them be." Jeremie commented.

"Do you really think that's the best idea?" Aelita asked. "We all know Ulrich will eventually snap out of it, but what about Zhane?"

"Why are you always so worried about Zhane?" Jeremie asked, with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"It's because, in a way, I can understand what he's going through. Being suddenly thrust into something completely foreign and new to you, with no way of knowing what to do. He reminds me of me when I first came to Earth. Remember what I was like back then?"

Jeremie nodded gravely. The image of Aelita's lifeless body after shutting down the supercomputer wasn't something he'd ever forget. "Yeah, but we were there for you Aelita."

Aelita looked Jeremie in the eye. "Then shouldn't we be there for Zhane too?"

"You're right Aelita. Since we don't have class tomorrow we should all head to the factory. Make sure to invite Ulrich and Zhane. Who wants to volunteer to get them?"

"I'll get Ulrich." Yumi responded. "He'll be most likely to listen to me."

"Then me and Odd will get Zhane." Aelita said. "He seems to trust us the most, so it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Great. We should met up after breakfast, so try to be as quick as you can." Jeremie said, standing up to leave.

* * *

Zhane awoke abruptly. Panting and gasping for breath he looked towards his alarm clock and saw that it was eleven pm. His stomach rumbled and the familiar feeling of hunger pangs washed over him. Grimacing, he knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep soon. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to skip dinner. He quickly threw on his hoodie and quietly out his door. A short late night walk should be enough to distract him from his hunger. Being careful to look for Jim, Zhane slowly made his way off campus. He didn't have a particular destination, so he set off for the Hermitage since he hadn't explored it fully yet.

The night air felt cool against Zhane's skin, he was glad he thought to bring his hoodie before heading out. Sighing to himself he relished the momentary peace. As much as he enjoyed being on Lyoko there were just some things he loved about the real world, a calm night being one of them. Upon reaching the Hermitage an eerie feeling came over him. He felt as if he wasn't alone, and as if he was being watched. Chalking it up to just being tired Zhane slowly entered the front door of the Hermitage.

Upon entering the strange feeling Zhane had intensified. Almost every part of him screamed to get out of there and run. Zhane was about to shake off the feeling and go further in when he heard footsteps on the floor above him. The footsteps neared the stairs and paused. A brief moment later a voice called out. "Who's there?". The voice sounded like it belonged to an older person, definitely a woman. The footsteps picked up again and started down the stairs. "I said who's there?". The footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs, whoever it was would be able to see him now. Zhane strained his eyes against the darkness, but couldn't make out any details of the person. "You're just a kid..." She said, relief apparent in her voice.

"Who are you?" Zhane asked.

"What's a kid like you doing out in a place like this at this hour?" She asked backed.

Zhane took a few steps into the house, his eyes starting to adjust to the darkness. The woman was taller than him, and wore a long dark overcoat. The most striking feature of her to Zhane was her hair. It was a light pink, just like Aelita's. "Aelita?" Zhane asked aloud.

The woman seemed taken aback at this. "How do you know that name?" She asked. She shook her head. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea to come here after all..." Moving quickly she ran past Zhane and out the front door. Zhane followed her as fast as he could. She turned a corner and ran to a door near the hermitage. She flung it open and ran inside without hesitation, with Zhane following closely behind. Upon entering the door Zhane was surprised to see that it lead to the sewers. He had also lost track of the woman, there was a large area she could have already fled to, and Zhane didn't feel like searching for her. Stepping back outside Zhane mulled over what happened.

"Was that Aelita, or am I just hallucinating things?" He asked himself. Sighing to himself he shook his head. "Wouldn't be the first time." He muttered to himself. Zhane turned around and slowly made his way back to Kadic. He desperately needed some sleep, and wasn't about to sleep outside and risk getting caught by Jim.

* * *

As breakfast was ending the Lyoko Warriors gathered outside the cafeteria. "Just make sure they get to the factory as soon as you can. William, you can come with me." Jeremie said. William nodded and followed Jeremie into the forest.

Yumi turned to Aelita and Odd. "Well, good luck on convincing Zhane you two. I'm going to try and find Ulrich." Yumi waved goodbye to the two and set off the find Ulrich. It didn't take too long before she found him in the rec room talking to Sissi. "Hey Sissi." Yumi said, walking up to them.

"Ah, hello Yumi. Do you need something?" Sissi asked.

"I just need to borrow Ulrich, it shouldn't take too long."

"That's fine Yumi." Sissi said. "I was planning on go shopping today anyways. See you two later!" With that Sissi left, leaving Yumi and Ulrich alone.

"Well she's certainly changed for the better." Yumi stated, smiling.

"Yeah, no kidding. Feels like just yesterday she was practically stalking me." Ulrich joked. Yumi chuckled slightly, to which Ulrich smiled. "So, what did you want me for anyway?"

"Jeremie wants us all at the factory, he said he'll explain when we get there."

"Does that mean Zhane is going to be there too?" Ulrich asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Probably. He didn't say for sure." Yumi shrugged. "It hardly matters either way. You're gonna have to face him again sooner or later."

"I hate it when you're right." Ulrich sighed.

Yumi lightly punched him in the shoulder. "You're lucky I'm here to keep you on track." Yumi smiled at him. "Come on, the others are probably waiting for us." Ulrich smiled and followed her to the factory.

* * *

Aelita and Odd were having less luck than Yumi in their search for Zhane. They looked throughout the courtyard, the dorm rooms, the rec room, and the library without any success. After 45 minutes of fruitless searching they returned to the courtyard. "I'm telling you Aelita, he's a slippery one." Odd said as they sat on a bench, trying to come up with an idea of where Zhane could be.

"There's gotta be somewhere we haven't check yet..." She mumbled to herself, as she racked her brain for answers. After a moment of waiting it came to her. "The Hermitage! He's been there before and we haven't checked it yet, so there's a chance."

"Wait, when has he been at the Hermitage? And how do you know?" Odd asked.

Aelita blushed slightly at this. "It was the day that he revived Xana, I went there to be alone and happened to find him there." Odd nodded at this and they began the walk to the Hermitage.

"So why do you think he went to the Hermitage, Aelita?"

Aelita thought for a moment before answering. "I can't say honestly. Maybe he wants to be alone and thought we wouldn't check it?" Aelita shrugged. "He's hard to read, so I'm not too sure." After a few more minutes of walking they had reached the Hermitage. They both slowly stepped into the home and began to look for Zhane. After a few minutes of searching all the rooms they didn't find Zhane.

"Well, I'm out of idea princess." Odd said as they exited the Hermitage.

"But it was my idea to check out the Hermitage!" Aelita protested.

"Don't get caught up on the little details. Let's just go to the factory for now, we can take the shortcut from here." As they both went to the door leading to the sewers they found that it was already open. Curious they both entered and found Zhane pacing the sewers muttering to himself.

"If she were to enter from here, where could she go?" Zhane asked himself. He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation, it was no use thinking about this.

"Hey Zhane!" Odd called to him. This seemed to break him from his stupor as he looked up at the two.

His gaze rested on Aelita.

"Aelita? You're here again?" Zhane questioned.

It was Aelita's turn to be confused. "Again? This is the first time I've been here in awhile. You feeling alright Zhane."

Zhane opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped and merely shook his head. "Nothing to be worried about, I just need to remember to get more sleep on most nights. So what brings you two here?"

"Einstein wants us at the factory." Odd answered. "That means you too buddy, so let's get going!" Odd wrapped his arm around Zhane's neck and started walking with him through the sewers.

Aelita smiled and laughed as Zhane insisted he could walk himself and tried to free himself from Odd's grasp. She felt that Zhane wasn't letting them in on something, but told herself she'd ask him later. She matched the boy's strides through the sewers as they walked to the factory.

"So, what does Jeremie want anyway?" Zhane asked them.

Odd shrugged with his spare arm. "He didn't tell us, but I'm sure it's something important. Besides don't you love surprises?"

"No." Zhane answered flatly

"You're no fun!" Odd complained, playfully shoving Zhane. Zhane chuckled to himself, happy to be free from Odd's grasp.

It didn't take long for the trio to reach the factory. They quickly jumped to the main floor and entered the elevator. The elevator went down and opened up at the computer room. Jeremie turned at the sound of the elevator opening. "About time! I was starting to get worried."

"Yeah well, Zhane didn't tell us he was the national champion at hide-and-seek." Odd retorted. Jeremie rolled his eyes at the comment and motioned for them to come to him. Zhane could see that everyone else was already there, including Ulrich. Doing his best to ignore Ulrich, Zhane turned to Jeremie.

"So what did you want us here for?" He asked the young genius.

"Well I was analyzing the data Aelita recovered in Sector 5 the other day, and I came across something interesting. I found data relating to Xana's control over you. I stayed up most of the night, but I'm pretty sure I found a way to limit, or hopefully stop, Xana controlling you."

Zhane nodded at this. "Sounds promising, now what's the catch?"

"I'm not 100 percent sure it'll work. Xana could have easily gave us bogus data, it certainly wouldn't be the first. But since it's all we have then we better make use of it. If you head to the scanner room Zhane, then I can upload the program."

"So then why are we all here Jeremie?" William asked.

"In case Xana tries to pull something. It's easier than and faster than having everyone run all over town." Jeremie responded.

"I'm headed to the scanner room then." Zhane said as he headed to the elevator. He closed the elevator, but not before shooting Ulrich a look of contempt. Zhane entered the scanner room and waited. One of the scanners opened up and he stepped into it, the scanner door closing behind him.

"Okay, starting the upload process now." Jeremie began typing rapidly on the keyboard. Multiple windows with various information appeared and he kept track of all of them. After a few moments of more typing Jeremie stopped. "You can step out now Zhane, and with any luck Xana won't be able to control you anymore."

Zhane returned to the computer room. "Now that that's over with, what about me fighting on Lyoko? With Xana seeming to take an active interest in things you guys need me."

Everyone nervously looked at Ulrich, who still hadn't said a thing. Slowly he walked towards Zhane. "Honestly I still feel like you shouldn't be allowed on Lyoko. You're reckless, stubborn, and there's still somethings we don't understand about your powers." He paused for a moment before continuing. "That being said, I'm willing to give you a second chance. It's the only chance you're getting though, so you better be careful." Ulrich offered his hand to Zhane.

Zhane didn't say anything for a moment. Suddenly he took Ulrich's hand and smirked. "One chance is all I need."

* * *

 **That's chapter 14 finished! I always feel as if the Lyoko Warriors, especially Ulrich, would be slow to fully accept someone into their group, Lyoko and all. I was thinking of maybe having them settle their differences some other way, but I'm happy with the way this turned out. Who could Zhane have seen at the Hermitage, assuming it wasn't him hallucinating or a trick of Xana?**

 **Please leave a review as they are always greatly appreciated! See you for the next chapter!**


	15. Paralysis

**Chapter 15**

* * *

Ulrich's katanas crashed against Zhane's sword, sliding off and away from Zhane. Zhane lunged forwards with an overhead swing but Ulrich dodged to the left. He attempted to slash with his katanas but Zhane caught his hands mid-swing. Struggling, Zhane forced Ulrich's hands down and knocked the katanas out of his grip, and kicked them away. Zhane re-summoned his sword and slashed at Ulrich, stopping just short of his neck. A sly grin spread across Zhane's face.

"That's another win for me!" He declared happily. He and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors had been virtualized to the Desert sector of Lyoko, as Ulrich had insisted that Zhane needed some training. Of course this was only partially true. While this exercise was meant to train Zhane, it was also a way for Ulrich to take out his frustrations against him without getting reprimanded for it.

Ulrich smirked back at Zhane. "Yeah, but that just means we're tied again." The matches had been going evenly, due to both sides calling for a rematch every time they lost. "Think you can do that again though?"

"Sheesh Ulrich, will you give it a rest already?" Odd complained, laying across a flat rock. "We've been watching you two go at it for awhile now, can't you think of something different?"

"I've got an idea." Jeremie said over the mic. "Xana seems to have spotted you, so why not take out the monsters he's sent after you? It's a group of five Tarantulas and four Bloks, so you should be careful."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Odd whooped. He jumped off his rock and crouched down on all fours. "Let's go kick some monster butt!" Odd ran off on all fours towards the monsters with Aelita, William, and Yumi right behind him.

Zhane tossed Ulrich his katanas, who deftly caught them and sheathed them. "Guess we'll have to leave it at a draw then. Shame too." Zhane shook his head in mock disappointment, but his grin never left his face.

"You wish it was a tie. I bet I'll take out more monsters than you!" With those parting words Ulrich super sprinted away to catch up with the group.

"That's not fair!" Zhane yelled, running after everyone.

Odd was the first one to get to the monsters. Upon seeing them he stood up and readied his arm. He shot a volley of eight laser arrows at the first Tarantula he saw. Five of his arrows hit the eye of Xana, instantly destroying it. Before he could celebrate he felt a laser hit his left shoulder. Looking over he saw a Blok that had fired at him. Before he could retaliate Aelita fired an energy field at the Blok, destroying it.

"Gonna have to be quicker than that Odd!" Aelita quipped, activating her wings to fly above the battlefield. The remaining four Tarantulas had begun firing upon the Lyoko Warriors, causing them to seek shelter behind a large group of rocks. "I'll distract them for a moment, you guys get them once they turn their attention to me." Aelita rose above the rock formation and flew towards the group of monsters. The Tarantulas turned their attention to her, and began firing at her, as she strafed the air above them. The remaining three Bloks circled around the rock formation the others were hiding behind, attempting to pincer them. As soon as one of the Bloks rounded the corner Yumi's fan sliced directly across it's middle, destroying it. William slammed his sword down on one of the other Bloks, slicing it in half and crushing it at the same time. Ulrich leaped at the remaining Blok, landing on it's side and shoving his sword into it's eye of Xana.

Aelita fired two energy fields at the Tarantulas, but only one of them hit leaving her with three to deal with. Zhane slowly walked out from behind the rock formation and drew one hand across his blade. The sword began to pulsate with dark energy and he held it aloft. "Dark razor!" he cried, swinging his sword horizontally. A large wave of black energy flew forth from his sword, slicing through the remaining Tarantulas and destroying them. Aelita flew down and landed next to Zhane as everyone gathered around.

"Seriously Zhane." Odd began. "You need to come up with some better names for your attacks. You wasted a perfectly good chance to call that 'sword beam'!"

"Am I supposed to be taking naming advice from you? Last I checked those 'Tarantulas' that you named only have four legs. And the block monsters are literally called Bloks!" Zhane smirked. "At least I have _creativity_ in my names."

"Hey, I just call them like I see them." Odd shrugged.

"I'd hate to interrupt your little argument guys, but we've got bigger problems at hand." Jeremie said over the headset. "There are some more monsters headed your way, four of them from the looks of it. The problem is that I can't tell what monsters they are."

"Are you saying it's a new monster Xana created?" Aelita asked.

"It would certainly look like it. Be careful, they're headed towards you from the East."

The group had readied themselves and looked towards the direction Jeremie stated. All they saw was the barren Desert sector, no sign of any monsters.

"Jeremie we don't see anything." Yumi said. "Are you sure there's something headed our way?"

"That's strange. According to my map they should be directly in front of you."

Zhane took a few steps forwards and scanned the area. He couldn't see anything, and yet he couldn't shake the feeling something was there. Suddenly he felt a sharp, stinging pain in the middle of his back.

"Watch out Zhane! You just lost ten life points!"

"Did anyone see a laser?" William asked the group. Everyone shook their heads, as Zhane stayed in the same spot.

"Jeremie, there's something wrong." Zhane grunted. "I can't move my limbs anymore."

"A paralysis side-effect?" Jeremie mused. "Don't worry, I'll see what I can do about it, everyone else be extra careful."

"If we can't see them then how are we supposed to fight them?" Odd complained.

"We'll just have to guess where they are." Aelita said, firing an energy field into empty space. The energy field hit nothing, and fell to the ground. Following Aelita's lead Yumi threw both of her fans into opposite directions. One hit nothing and returned to her, while the other hit something close to the ground. Small bolts of electricity formed where the fan hit, and the monster uttered a low growl as it slowly shimmered into vision.

It was a relatively small monster, no bigger than anyone's torso. It walked around on four short legs that kept it close to the ground, with small claws on the end of each leg. The head was circular, with the eye of Xana on top and a small mouth in the middle, similar to a Creeper's. At the end of the body a long, slender tail swayed and twitched, with long, thing spikes at the end of it. The fan had struck the monster's leg, and it turned to face the group. With lightning quick reflexes, it's mouth opened up and a long slender tongue, whipped out and struck Yumi across the chest, before retreating back into the mouth. Aelita fired an energy field at the monster, but it quickly ran away and faded from view again.

"It hits things with a tongue?" Odd asked. "That's kinda gross, even for Xana."

"Yeah, and it appears that tongue is also what paralyzes whatever it hits." Jeremie said while typing. "But why design it that way...?"

"We don't have time to question it Einstein!" Odd shouted as he fired laser arrows randomly, in the hopes of hitting one. "Just try to work on a cure!"

"Yeah, that's not as easy as you make it sound Odd." Jeremie stated. "I don't even know how the paralysis works, so this might take awhile, if I even can figure it out!"

Before Odd could reply he felt a tongue strike him across the shoulder, and he too was paralyzed. Aelita, Ulrich and William backed up into a circle against each other.

"So, any ideas you two?" William asked, using his great-sword to shield himself from potential attacks.

Aelita fired a few energy fields before speaking. "I can't think of anything, if we had some way of seeing them first we could fight, but without one there isn't much we can do."

"There has to be something-" Ulrich began, before getting struck. Before too much longer both Aelita and William also got hit, and they became paralyzed. The four monsters slowly shimmered into view after everyone had been struck. With a few simple head gestures they each split up, heading to a different person. One monster went to Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi and stood in front of them. Without warning their tails shot forward and imbedded themselves into each Warrior's chest.

"Jeremie, they're doing something to the others." William groaned out. Unable to move and stop the monsters. After a moment the monsters retracted their tails, and walked away. The group wasn't able to breathe a sigh of relief though, as a familiar shriek filled the air. A large jellyfish-like creature floated towards them, making it's way to Aelita.

"The Scyphozoa!" Aelita cried. Unable to move, the Scyphozoa floated towards Aelita and levitated her into the air. Two tentacles flew to her temples, while a third rested at her forward, and a red glow surrounded her.

"Why'd it have to be now..." Jeremie mumbled to himself as he finished typing something. "Okay Zhane, if my calculations are correct I should have been able to minimize the paralysis' effect on you. You should be able to move now. You have to quickly stop the Scyphozoa before it drains Aelita's memory, and Xana gets the keys to Lyoko!"

Slowly Zhane began to move, still feeling lingering effects of the paralysis. He turned towards the Scyphozoa and glared at it. "Dark bind!" he shouted, raising his arm towards it. A large dark chain erupted from the ground, and wrapped itself around the Scyphozoa's head. The force of the chain made it drop Aelita, who slowly floated to the ground. Zhane made a jerking motion with his arm, and the chain pulled backwards, pulling the Scyphozoa towards him.

"Let's see how much I can absorb from you..." he mused, as he put his hand onto it's eye of Xana. Zhane began to drain the Scyphozoa of it's energy. Suddenly, pictures started appearing in his mind; things he had never seen before. An older man with glasses playing the piano in a house, a small pink haired girl playing outside in the snow, the same man sitting in the chair in the factory working on the supercomputer, with a slender hand resting on his shoulder. Shocked from the images Zhane removed his hand from the Scyphozoa and the chain on it shattered. With it's signature shriek it fled the scene, presumably heading to Sector 5.

"Zhane! What's going on down there?" Jeremie asked.

"It's nothing Jeremie. I just spaced out for a second there." Zhane turned his gaze to the others who were still paralyzed. "What are we gonna do about everyone?"

"Don't worry, I'll administer the fix and then materialize you all. It shouldn't take but a minute."

Zhane simply nodded, and turned to stare at Aelita. There was no doubt that the small pink haired girl he saw in his vision was her, which meant the older man was likely her father, Franz Hopper. What Zhane couldn't piece together was who's perspective he saw them from, and why that person knew he worked on the supercomputer. There were too many questions for him to answer, he'd have to ask Aelita for her input on the matter later.

* * *

"Boy, does it feel good to be moving again!" Odd cried as he exited the elevator, stretching his arms above his head.

"You can say that again." Yumi said. "Those new monsters are a pain to deal with."

"If only we had a way to fight them..." William added, leaning against the wall.

"I'll definitely have to work on that soon." Jeremie started. "But at least we can neutralize the paralysis if they strike again."

"My question is, what did those things do to us when they stabbed us with their tails?" Yumi asked.

Jeremie was silent for a moment before bringing up various data monitors. "I wish I knew Yumi. From what it looks like, they didn't do anything to you. Every scan showed you being exactly the same as when you were virtualized, so they didn't add or take anything away from you."

"Maybe they copied something?" William offered.

Jeremie seemed to consider this for a moment. "I suppose it is obvious, but what? They couldn't manage to get a copy of the keys of Lyoko that Aelita has, so what else could Xana want from you?"

"Who knows?" Ulrich said, shrugging his shoulders. "I have a feeling we'll find out sooner or later, and it won't do us any good to worry about it until then." There was a brief moment of silence before Odd spoke up.

"Hey Einstein." Odd began. "Why didn't you just materialize us when those Chameleons attacked?"

"Chameleons?" Zhane scoffed. "Are we really going to be calling them that."

"Oh, well let's see you come up with something better then _Mr. Creativity_ " Odd replied sarcastically. Zhane merely shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

"Back to the topic at hand, I didn't materialize you because it's impossible to say what would have happened. It's highly possible materializing while you're paralyzed on Lyoko will paralyze you in real life. Better to not take the chance." Jeremie turned back to the console and began typing. "In any case I have a lot of work to do, so you guys can head back to Kadic without me."

"Do you think you'll need any of my help Jeremie?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie shook his head. "I should be fine on my own Aelita, I'll meet you guys back at Kadic for lunch."

Aelita nodded at this and entered the elevator with everyone else. As they reached the surface and headed into the sewers Zhane spoke up.

"I'm going to meet you guys back at Kadic too. There's something in the Hermitage that I need to check out."

"And what is that, exactly?" Aelita asked him.

"You are more than welcome to tag along and find out, angel." Zhane smirked at her and started walking away.

Aelita sighed to herself and turned to face everyone. "I'm going with him. Don't wait for me." With that she turned and quickly ran to catch up with Zhane. "So what is it that you need to find out at the Hermitage?"

Zhane slowed his pace as he looked at her. "As I began to absorb energy from the Scyphozoa I started to see flashes of images in my mind. If my theory is correct they were images of Franz Hopper, your father."

Aelita's eyes widened at this. "Really? What did you see?"

Zhane shook his head. "It wasn't much, and it was over quick. But, I think it was something from the past. I saw him playing a piano, him watching you play in the snow, and him working on the supercomputer." Zhane remained silent a moment before continuing. "I'm just not sure whose perspective I saw those images from..."

Aelita mulled it over in her head. "The only other person that I can remember would be my mother, but I'm not sure what happened to her. One day she just vanished from my life, and I never saw her again." Aelita's breathing hitched momentarily before she composed herself.

"If you don't mind me asking, what did she look like?"

"That's an odd question. I guess, like an older version of me?" Aelita offered. "That's the best way I can explain it anyway, she's where I get my pink hair from."

Zhane merely nodded at this. This information coupled with his encounter last night disturbed him. It was possible that somehow he encountered Aelita's mother. He didn't offer any of this information to Aelita, partially because he didn't want her to get her hopes up, and partially because he wasn't sure how correct he was. It would explain how she knew about Aelita and the passage into the sewers, but what was she doing in the Hermitage in the middle of the night, after supposedly deserting Aelita many years ago? He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for the moment, as they had arrived at the Hermitage. They entered the old house carefully and moved into the living room. Just as last time, a piano stood in the corner.

"This is it alright." Zhane said. "I definitely saw your father here in that image."

"What if this is all one of Xana's tricks though?"

Zhane turned to face her. "Care to share your thoughts?"

"Don't take this the wrong way Zhane, but Xana most likely believes you easy to manipulate." Aelita chose her words carefully, she knew how sudden Zhane's outbursts could be. "What if he just showed you those to try and trick you into doing something for him?"

To her surprise Zhane didn't react for a moment. He merely stared at her in silence before speaking. "You do raise a good point, and I appreciate your concern. But there's a bit more to this than just the images I saw, I just need to piece everything together first." Zhane paused briefly. "I think I might need to absorb more from the Scyphozoa to understand more of this."

"That's a bit dangerous, now that Xana knows you can absorb it he could easily use that to trap you."

Zhane sighed. "That is the risk of the matter, isn't it? It's either that or wait around being clueless, and I know which one I prefer." Zhane looked like he was about to continue speaking but was interrupted by his phone ringing. Checking the caller id Zhane answered the phone.

Before he could even get a word in the person on the other line spoke. "Oh, so _now_ you decide to pick up!" Zhane recognized that voice, and could just imagine the smug grin that accompanied it.

"Sorry Chris," Zhane began. "I was a bit tied up for awhile there."

"Uh-huh, I bet. It's not like you have classes on a Sunday, so what could it be? I bet if it was Cynthia calling you wouldn't have hesitated to answer!"

Zhane merely rolled his eyes, a fruitless gesture for a phone conversation, before speaking. "Yeah, sure whatever. What do you want anyway?"

"I want to know why you've been talking to Cynthia but haven't bothered to call me!" Chris attempted to sound hurt, but Zhane could hear the joking tone of his voice.

"Been busy." Zhane said simply. "So what do you really want, because I actually have things I should be doing."

Chris sighed dramatically before speaking. "Well Cynthia already spoiled the surprise, but I figured I'd tell ya anyways. I'll be coming to Kadic in about a week or two!"

"Oh? And what about Cynthia, wasn't she going to come too?"

"Yeah, but there were some complications. She'll be arriving a few weeks after me, so we'll have to go pick her up then."

"That's a shame." Zhane said, disheartened.

"Ah, don't sweat it! As long as I'm there you'll forget all about her." If it came from anyone else Zhane would have chalked it up to hyperbole, but Chris sounded like he genuinely meant it.

"Yeah, maybe. Will you at least give me a warning before you get here?"

"Nope! We're still working out the details so the exact date is kinda sketchy at the moment. Don't worry though, I'll definitely be there." Chris cleared his throat before continuing. Instead of his usual loud and brash voice he spoke in a soft tone. "Just hang in there a little longer little bro, I'll be there before you know it." With that he hung up the call.

Zhane stared at his phone briefly before putting it in his pocket. "See you soon." He whispered to himself, a smile on his face. Zhane looked up and saw Aelita staring at him.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"A friend." Zhane stated simply. "A friend who's coming to Kadic."

* * *

 **This took way longer than it should have, mostly because the universe hates me. I had a really bad case of strep throat for about two weeks, and then it was time for finals so I didn't have any time to actually write this. Things have settled down for now, so unless another unforeseen illness strikes all should be well. The Chameleons are a brand new monster that (to my knowledge) don't exist in any video game spin off or anything. As for what they did, well you'll just have to wait and see. Please leave a review, as they are always appreciated, and I will see you in the next chapter!**


	16. Breakdown

**Chapter 16**

"So, what's this friend of yours like?" Aelita asked Zhane as they left the Hermitage.

"His name is Chris, and he's a good friend." Zhane began as they walked through the forest. "He's been there for me more times than I can remember. He doesn't judge me for any of my mistakes, and always makes a genuine effort to help. He can be a bit overbearing at times though."

"How so?" Aelita asked, tilting her head.

"Imagine a more loud and obnoxious Odd."

"I don't think that's possible." Aelita chuckled. "Is he also the one that gave you your MP3 player?"

Zhane shook his head. "Nah, that was another friend. You might meet her someday too." The two walked in silence for the rest of their journey, save for the sounds of nature. Upon reaching Kadic Zhane spoke up once again. "I'm going to take a nap, call me if anyone needs me for something important."

"Why do you always go off to take naps, don't you get enough sleep?" Aelita asked.

Zhane sighed and leaned against a nearby tree, running his hand through his hair. "Not really." He mumbled. "I've been getting nightmares a lot recently, not that I didn't have them before. It just seems that here, they're more frequent. Either I stay awake most of the night too scared to fall asleep, or I sleep in short segments before waking up again." Zhane sat at the base of the tree and drew his knees to his chin. "It's hard to sleep because of it, ya know?"

Aelita silently nodded and sat down next to Zhane. "What are these nightmares about?" She asked quietly.

Zhane stayed silent for a moment before answering. "Some of them are Xana messing with me, trying to manipulate me or torment me. Those ones aren't so bad. The other ones are personal, and I'd rather not talk about them."

"How do you expect anything to get better if you refuse to talk about it?" Aelita questioned. "We're all your friends Zhane, you know you can trust us with anything."

"I know it's just that..." Zhane sighed before continuing. "I was hurt by people I trusted before, hurt like you couldn't imagine. Even now I still think back to it, was it my fault? If I did something different would they have acted differently?" Zhane paused momentarily. "It eats away at me, and I can't keep it away when I'm asleep. Sometimes I think it'd be better to distance myself from everyone, just so nothing like that happens to me again, but that's not way to live."

There was a moment of silence after Zhane finished speaking. "When I first came to Earth it was hard for me to adjust." Aelita spoke up. "Back then we believed I was just a virtual lifeform, and that Xana gave me a virus so we couldn't shut down the supercomputer. I had countless nightmares back then, almost every night it seemed. So one day I just decided it was too much, so I shut off the supercomputer."

Zhane raised his head and looked at Aelita. "Even though it would kill you?"

Aelita nodded. "I figured the life of someone who doesn't really exist wasn't worth risking the life of everyone on Earth. Jeremie and the others helped me through it though, and eventually we figured out I was a human after all." Aelita hesitated before continuing. "Remember how we told you that my father sacrificed himself to destroy Xana during our final mission?" Zhane nodded, wondering where Aelita was going with this. "Well, I saw it happen in front of me. I saw Xana destroy him before my eyes."

"I can't imagine what that must've been like, I'm sorry."

Aelita gave him a soft smile before continuing. "Now that Xana's back all of my nightmares have been similar to that moment. Except this time it's someone else I see him destroying. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, or Jeremie..." Aelita's breath hitched. "I always knew that fighting Xana was dangerous, but now I'm more scared than ever that I'll lose someone."

Zhane lowered his head. "Sorry for causing all of this." he murmured.

"You didn't know what you were doing. You never could have thought that this would happen Zhane."

The two sat in silence beneath the tree for a few more minutes before Zhane spoke again. "It's almost lunch time angel, you should get going."

Aelita turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "And what about you?"

"Already told you, I'm going to take a nap, so don't wait for me."

"You haven't eaten anything all day, you can't skip lunch too!" Aelita frowned.

"Not hungry, so I'm not going to eat." Zhane leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes.

Aelita stood up and brushed herself off. "I'll bring you back something then." she said before running off.

"Whatever you say angel..." Zhane said as he fell asleep.

* * *

"So what did Zhane want princess?" Odd asked through a mouthful of food.

"When he tried to absorb the Scyphozoa he saw images of my father, he just wanted to go to the Hermitage to confirm it."

"He saw your dad?" Yumi asked. "How is that even possible?"

Aelita shook her head. "I'm not sure honestly. I would say he imagined it, but he was specific with the details." Aelita thought back to her conversation with Zhane when she remembered something. "Oh! He also wanted to ask what my mom looked like."

A look of confusion spread across everyone's face. "Why would he want to know that?" Ulrich asked.

"Maybe he saw Aelita's mom and thought it was Aelita?" Odd offered.

"Not that can't be it. He specifically said he saw me when I was younger in those images." Aelita pointed out.

"Are we all going to assume this isn't just some trick Xana is pulling?" William asked with a scowl.

"No, its a very real possibility." Aelita said. "Everything is just speculation right now. But I am curious as to why he wanted to know about my mother..."

"Well why don't you just ask him?" Ulrich offered.

Aelita shook her head dismissively. "He'd just dodge the question, you know that's how he is." _Even if he is starting to open up more,_ she thought to herself. Ulrich simply nodded in agreement and continued eating. After a few minutes Jeremie joined the group.

"Hey Einstein, any luck with those Chameleons?" Odd asked.

"I wish. Xana has really outdone himself with making them invisible. You'll just have to try hitting them as best you can for now. I'll come up with something eventually." Jeremie grimaced as he began to eat.

"But at least you were able to cure their paralysis." Aelita said with a smile. "I'd say that's the most dangerous part about them already taken care of."

Jeremie blushed at this and smiled awkwardly. "Thanks Aelita."

* * *

Zhane's eyes slowly fluttered open, taking in his surroundings. He was still at the tree, but some time had definitely past during his nap. Trying, and failing, to stifle a yawn he slowly got up. When he stood up he noticed a round object roll out of his lap. Curious, Zhane knelt down and picked it up. It was a red apple, one that he certainly didn't have before he fell asleep. He smiled softly, Aelita really had brought him something back. As he began eating it, he made a mental note to not skip as many meals in the future. Quickly demolishing the apple Zhane threw the core away and went for a walk.

Zhane quickly found the edge of the forest and made it back to Kadic. Since it was midday on a Sunday a large amount of students were milling about the courtyard, hoping to enjoy the nice weather while it lasted. Zhane scanned the crowd of students and saw the Lyoko Warriors at their usual bench chatting it up. Deciding it would be best not to join them for awhile Zhane turned to head inside Kadic.

" _It's best if you keep your distance, isn't it?"_ An all too familiar voice rang in his head. Zhane grimaced and made sure no one was close enough to hear him.

"Don't bother me." He muttered, seemingly to himself.

" _Even from here you can tell the bond they share, especially those two."_ Xana continued. Even though he didn't give any names, Zhane had a feeling he knew who Xana was referring to.

"Shut up." He said through gritted teeth.

" _She knows of your feelings Zhane, you aren't good at hiding them despite what you might think. Distance yourself, from both them and her, so that it hurts less when they betray you."_ Zhane knelt down against the building and tried to block out Xana, if he could just ignore him then maybe he'd give up. _"Or would you rather have a repeat of what happened with your parents?"_

Just like that Zhane felt everything around him fade away. He couldn't see anything happening, couldn't hear if Xana had continued speaking. It felt like someone removed all the air from his lungs, and there was no way to breathe again. The only sound he could hear was distant screaming, the familiar scent of blood filled his nostrils. He shut his eyes and shook his head in desperation, his breathing becoming quicker and shallow. He was only faintly aware of someone calling to him and he didn't respond to them.

More voices joined in and they all mixed together in Zhane's head. He couldn't decipher anything. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder, and all the voices stopped except for one. "Zhane!" It called. "Listen to me! You need to control your breathing. Now, breathe in...and out." Zhane followed their instructions and the process repeated several times. Slowly, the world around him came back into focus. A small crowd of students had gathered in front of him, and William was kneeling down in front of him with a hand on Zhane's left shoulder.

"Nothing to see here, everything's fine." William said to the crowd. When they didn't disperse he yelled "Beat it!" and swung his arm in their direction. Slowly, the students cleared out until it was just William and Zhane left. "Cmon, lets get you to the infirmary." William stood up and offered Zhane his hand but Zhane sat still. Slowly, he shook his head. "What do you mean? Do you not want to go?" Zhane gave a small nod and stared at the floor. "Zhane this is serious, could you at least give me an explanation?"

Hundreds of possible excuses came to Zhane's mind, but he didn't vocalize any of them. He knew that he needed help, but admitting it to someone else was an entirely different subject. He could hardly admit it to himself. Slowly, Zhane looked up at William and shook his head.

"Typical." William scoffed. "Well let's at least go see the others then, they're worried about you." Without waiting for approval William grabbed Zhane's arm and hoisted him up. Keeping a firm grip on Zhane's wrist William lead him over to where the others were. Looks of confusion and concern adorned all of their faces, and no one spoke.

After a moment of silence Zhane spoke up. "I'm fine guys, really." He turned to leave but was stopped by William grabbing onto his shoulder.

"Zhane, what just happened?" Yumi asked.

Zhane looked at the ground, hoping to avoid eye contact with anyone. "It's nothing you guys need to be concerned about. I'm fine."

"I don't know what your definition of fine is," Ulrich began. "but that certainly was not fine. It looked like you were having a panic attack!"

"And so what if I was?!" Zhane snapped. "It's not like you can help me, not like you can make me better or fix me, as if there's something wrong with me. My problems are my own to deal with, so just leave me alone!" Zhane shrugged off William's grip and headed to the dorms, desperate to be alone.

Zhane found his room as fast as possible and rushed in. Being sure to lock the door, Zhane knelt against the wall. He knew he shouldn't have snapped at them, and part of him knew he should let them help. He told himself he'd apologize to them later, but he knew he wouldn't. Zhane reached for his MP3 player, and put in his ear buds in an attempt to drown out his own thoughts.

* * *

"Guess Zhane's upset with us again." Odd stated glumly.

Ulrich snorted. "Yeah, what else is new? I say if he wants to be alone, let him. He clearly doesn't want any of our help."

"We can't just ignore him though." William stated. "Whatever it is that's wrong with is still affecting him deeply, if he continues to act like this he won't be of much help on missions."

"If only we could figure out how this all started..." Jeremie mused to himself.

Aelita closed her eyes and began to thinking. She thought of all of Zhane's conversations with the group, the way he interacted with them, his reactions to Xana. As she began to fit the pieces together she grimaced. "I have a theory, but I desperately hope that I'm wrong."

* * *

 **Curse my poor immune system, I don't think I've been healthy at all this month. If this chapter seems disjointed I'm sorry, having to work on it while I'm sick was probably not the best idea but I'd be damned if I didn't get out another chapter this month. Hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter, despite the time it took to get it out!**


	17. Recovery

**Chapter 17**

Zhane's alarm blared in his ears, waking him from his sleep. Groggily he reached around until his hand found the alarm, stopping it from continuing. Sitting up in his bed he slowly started to fully wake himself up. It had been three days since his episode in the courtyard. Three days of avoiding the other Lyoko Warriors. Three restless nights with little sleep. He knew he was being immature about it, there was no excuse for snapping at them like he did, but he couldn't bring himself to face them either. Sighing to himself he got up to take a shower and get ready for classes that day, there was no use thinking about it for too long.

The last bell of the day rang, signaling that class was over. Quickly gathering his things Zhane left, ignoring the people calling his name. He knew what they wanted, he knew that he didn't want to hear it. He headed to the forest, putting his earbuds in on the way, desperate to be alone. After being a good distance from Kadic, Zhane slowed his pace. Settling into his routine he headed towards the Hermitage. He had taken to spending his time there during the past few days, from when classes let out until when dinner was being served. Nobody bothered him there, either because they didn't know where he was, or they didn't care enough to follow. It also gave Zhane a chance to encounter the pink haired woman again, although she hadn't appeared since their first encounter. He was almost fully convinced it was just a sleep-deprived hallucination.

Upon reaching his destination he headed inside and sat in the dilapidated living room. Closing his eyes, Zhane allowed himself to relax.

" _Why are you running away boy?_ " a voice suddenly asked him.

Startled, Zhane looked around briefly to see who was talking to him. When he couldn't find anyone he growled to himself. Xana. "Who said I was running?" he asked back.

" _No one had to say it, your actions make it clear as day. You must know acting like this will get you nowhere._ "

"And why do you care? You seemed more than happy enough to put me in this position." Zhane pointed out. There was a brief pause before Xana responded.

" _I don't want you to squander the potential I've laid out for you. If you were to just join me, you'd have all the power you could ever desire."_ Xana said. " _For instance..."_ Slowly, Zhane's right arm rose in front of him of its own accord. A strange sensation filled his entire body, and an orb of electricity appeared in his hand. _"With just a bit of practice, you could do this without my help you know. Just imagine the possibilities Zhane."_ The orb in Zhane's hand slowly dissipated, and the strange sensation went away. It had seemed that Xana was done talking to him for now. Sighing to himself Zhane stood up and started walking back to Kadic, there was no way he'd be able to relax here now.

* * *

Reaching the outskirts of Kadic, Zhane started to hear the loud multitudes of students milling about the courtyard. Deciding to avoid them he stayed withing the edges of the forest. He had begun to contemplate what to do when his thoughts were interrupted by two voices close to him. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but one of them was definitely scared. Deciding to check it out he headed in their direction.

Zhane walked into a small clearing in the forest, and in front of him were the source of the voices. It was a boy and a girl, the boy's body blocking view of the girl. His hair was short, light brown, and well groomed, he wore a black button up shirt, jeans, and a pair of red and white sneakers. He had cornered the girl against a tree and was leaning against it, effectively cutting off her means of escape.

"Cmon, just one date is all I'm asking for." he insisted, his voice low as if to make it sound more appealing. "I'm a nice guy, don't I deserve a chance?"

"I a-already said no.." The girl said meekly. Her eyes turned over the boy's shoulder and saw Zhane. Although she didn't say anything her eyes made it clear that she was begging for help. Following her gaze the boy turned around and saw Zhane.

"Get out of here kid, this doesn't involve you." He said, crossing his arms and glaring. Zhane couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"You're calling me kid when you're younger than me? That's rich." Zhane closed the distance between them. "Now, drop the tough guy act and leave, she already said no."

"I ain't leaving until she says yes, she owes me that much. Now get out of here if you know what's good for you." The boy said, clenching his fists. At this remark something in Zhane snapped, and he started laughing uncontrollably.

"You've got guts, I'll give you that!" Zhane choked out between laughs. The boy didn't take kindly to this and his fist shot towards Zhane's face. Zhane caught the fist in his hand and lowered the boy's arm. "Let me spell it out for you, you're nothing to me kid." Zhane said, glaring at the boy. The boy tried pulling back his fist but Zhane held tight, hearing a small crack in the boy's fist. "Have you died before kid? Cause I have, and unless you can top that, you mean nothing to me." Without warning Zhane swept his other arm behind the boy and threw him to the ground. "Now don't let me see you bothering her again."

Cursing to himself the boy got up and walked off, shaking his hurt hand. Zhane sighed to himself and turned to look at the girl. Her face was a mixture of fear, relief, and something else Zhane couldn't quite place. She had dark brown hair that went down past her shoulders, and was wearing a light blue sweater and a dark pair of jeans that were both a few sizes too large for her.

"You okay?" He asked. "He didn't hurt you or anything did he?"

She shook her head. "No I'm fine." she answered quietly. "Thanks for helping me. I'm Gracelynn by the way, Grace for short."

"I'm Zhane, and don't mention it. I'd never be able to walk away from something like that."

"I was just sitting here relaxing when he came up to me and I just..." she trailed off, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "If you hadn't have come I don't know what I would've done." Without warning she hugged Zhane and began sobbing into his shoulder. Zhane attempted to comfort her until she began to calm down.

"If he ever bothers you again just let me know, okay?" With that Zhane gave her his contact information and sat down. Grace slowly sat down besides him.

"By the way, what did you mean by you had died before?" She asked him.

Zhane shrugged his shoulders. "That was a slight exaggeration, it was only a near death experience, but it sounded more dramatic that way."

"I'm sorry for bringing it up then..."

"Hey, it's not your fault. Not like you could've known." Zhane said, surprised at how little it bothered him. "Actually you're the first person to not ask me about it in depth."

Grace fiddled with the collar of her sweater for a bit before responding. "Well, if you wanted to talk about it I feel like you would've told me. Since you didn't I won't pry about it."

For the first time in the past couple of days, Zhane genuinely smiled. "Thanks, that really means a lot to me." Grace blushed at this and looked at the ground but mumbled out a 'no problem'. Zhane checked what time it was and sighed to himself.

"It's almost dinner time, I'm not looking forward to that..." He muttered to himself.

"Is it because you're still not talking to your friends?" Grace asked quietly.

Zhane stared at her for a moment. "How did you know that?"

Grace flushed bright red at this. "Well, a large amount of people saw what happened to you a few days ago. And it's not like I have any friends so, I might have just kept an eye on you." Grace gasped and covered her mouth at that, her face burning even brighter red. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that!"

Zhane chuckled to himself. "Relax, I get what you mean." Stretching and laying down on the grass, Zhane continued, "Like, I get that I should apologize to them for snapping at them, but every time I try to think of what to say it all just gets muddied up in my head, and I can't think straight."

Grace slowly laid down on the grass besides him. "I get what you mean, to an extent at least. It's hard for me to talk to people, so I just avoid them entirely." She turned her head to face Zhane. "I think that you shouldn't try and rehearse the apology, and when you do talk to them make sure you let them know there that there's some things that you're not okay with telling them."

"For some who says she isn't good at talking to people, you give good advice."

Grace went quiet at this. "I guess it's just because I've read so many stories that I just base my knowledge off that. I'm not overstepping any boundaries am I?"

"Don't worry, I'll let you know if you do." Zhane reached into his pocket and pulled out his earbuds. He hesitated a moment, before offering one to Grace. She accepted it and Zhane turned on his music.

"This song isn't in English." Grace pointed out after a brief moment of silence.

"I'm sorry, I got this from a friend. I can change it if you want." Zhane reached over to his MP3 player to change the song but Grace stopped him.

"It's fine, I don't mind it." She said smiling. The two laid in a comfortable silence, with only the sounds of their music to distract them.

* * *

Odd's eyes scanned the cafeteria briefly before returning to his food. "Guess he's still of sulking." he muttered to himself.

"Well I say let him sulk." William said, sitting down across from Odd. "If he wants to be off all by himself, then who are we to stop him?"

"That's a dangerous way of thinking." Aelita interjected. "Remember, Xana has had a strange fixation with him for awhile now. If we alienate him too much, then who's to say he won't turn to Xana?"

"I doubt it." Ulrich protested, pointing his spoon at Aelita. "You saw the way those two fought on Lyoko. After that I doubt either one of them wants anything to do with the other." Before their argument could continue Jeremie plopped down into the seat besides them with an exhausted sigh.

"You okay over there Einstein?" Odd asked, mouth half full of food.

"I'm fine, I've just been busy working on the Supercomputer." Jeremie responded. Before continuing he lowered his glasses and rubbed his forehead for a brief moment. "I just wish I had any information to go on! As it is, I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of that backup."

"Don't talk like that Jeremie." Aelita said gently. "It's always been difficult before hasn't it? You'll solve this in time, so don't rush and burn yourself out."

"Thanks Aelita." There was a brief moment of silence while they all ate. Eventually, Jeremie spoke up again. "If we could go to Sector 5 and retrieve some data from Xana, I should be able to use it to find some sort of starting ground."

William narrowed his eyes at this statement. "Wasn't it just a couple of days ago that you were completely against going to Sector 5 because it was more dangerous than ever now?"

"What I meant that it was too dangerous to go if it were just two of you with no one providing support. If most of us were able to go it shouldn't be a problem."

"You're forgetting that none of us have been able to beat Xana, even when we had the numbers of advantage." Ulrich pointed out. "If we were to show up I'm not sure we'd be able to take him."

"Zhane was able to make him retreat." Jeremie countered.

"That doesn't count and you know it Jeremie." Aelita began. "None of us know exactly how Zhane managed to do what he did, and we don't know if Xana retreated because he'd lost or if it was some other reason. With no way to recreate that scenario we can't know for certain if we can beat Xana. Not to even mention the fact that Zhane isn't talking to us currently, meaning we're effectively down one member."

"You're right." Jeremie sighed in defeat. "I just hate feeling so helpless! All we can do is wait for Xana to make a move and try our best to stop it, it's just so frustrating!"

Aelita slid one of her hands over Jeremie's. "We all know Jeremie, we don't like it either. But for now it's our best option." Aelita looked like she was going to continue, but someone approached their table and loudly cleared their throat. It was Zhane, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else.

"I'm not good with this kind of stuff, but I'm sorry I snapped at you guys the way I did earlier." He averted his gaze to the floor and scratched the back of his head. "I know you were just looking out for me, but there's some things I'm just not comfortable with." Zhane looked back up at them. "So uh, are we cool now or...?"

Odd started chuckling at this. "Of course we are Zhane, you're our friend after all!"

Relief, and what appeared to be skepticism, flashed across Zhane's face. "Really?"

"Much as we hate to admit it." Ulrich smirked. "You're not that bad, you know?" At this Zhane started chuckling which slowly became full out laughing, with the others quickly joining in.

Wiping a tear from his eye Zhane replied. "Thanks guys, that means a lot to me."

* * *

 **I'm continuing this story even if it kills me, which it shouldn't hopefully. It doesn't help that I re-did this chapter like 3 times because I felt like it was too apparent which scenes I enjoyed writing more because they were written better (I still kinda think that but I also feel like its in my head at this point), but I'm satisfied with this. I also felt like maybe I should've made it longer, but I liked ending on that note too much. Honestly I'm just rambling at this point :P**

 **As always please read and review!**


	18. Confusion

**Chapter 18**

"Ulrich, you're down to 30 life points, you need to be more careful!" Jeremie scolded over the mic. "Do I need to remind you that only you, Zhane, and Aelita are left?"

Ulrich ducked behind a rock outcropping next to Aelita and Zhane. They were in the Mountain sector, attempting to reach an activated tower. Unfortunately their only path forward was blocked by a group of two Krabes and three Chameleons, which had already devirtualized the others. "Yeah I get that, it's not exactly a picnic down here Einstein!"

Aelita blindly threw an energy sphere around the corner in hopes of hitting a Chameleon, but it flew through a Krabe's legs and missed. "If we could see them it wouldn't be so bad..." She muttered to herself.

"Maybe we don't have to." Zhane mused. Readying his sword Zhane quickly ran out from the outcropping and shot an arc of energy out, low to the ground. It grazed the Krabe's legs, harming them but not destroying them, while managing to destroy two of the Chameleons. "Ulirch, now's your chance!" Zhane shouted. Nodding Ulrich super sprinted towards one of the Krabes, dodging it's lasers. He ran below it, slicing it in half with his katana, destroying it. Before he could attack the other a Chameleon struck him, paralyzing him. Aelita stepped out from the outcropping and shot an energy sphere at the remaining Krabe just as it shot Ulrich devirtualizing him. Aelita activated her wings and started flying towards the tower in an attempt to evade the Chameleon with Zhane following on foot. They didn't get far before the Chameleon struck Aelita, paralyzing her and making her fall from the air. Zhane fired another arc of energy, but was paralyzed before it made contact with the Chameleon.

"Don't worry you two, I'll administer the fix as fast as I can!" Jeremie reassured. Before either of them could respond, the Scyphozoa let out it's familiar cry and headed towards Aelita. Wrapping her in it's tentacles it began to attempt to take the keys of Lyoko once more. "Okay Zhane, you should be able to move freely now." Jeremie said after a moment. "Now quickly stop the Scyphozoa!"

"Don't have to tell me twice." Zhane muttered. Raising his hand into the air he cried out "Dark bind!". A long chain erupted from the ground and snaked it's way around the Scyphozoa, making it drop Aelita in the process. The chain dragged the Scyphozoa towards Zhane, who one again placed his hand on it's eye of Xana. The visions came to him in no time.

 _A man sat at the supercomputer typing away furiously, a man Zhane knew to be Franz Hopper. Without turning away from his work he spoke. "I need you to leave, leave and go as far away from here as possible. Carthage must be stopped, but I don't want you to go down with me. So you need to take Aelita with you, and just leave."_

 _Another voice, a soft feminine voice replied to him. "I already told you I'm not leaving you, and that's not changing. Whatever it is you're doing, we're in it together okay?"_

 _Franz Hopper turned around and eyed her seriously. "What about Aelita?"_

" _I trust that you'll be able to keep us all safe."_

The vision faded away, and Zhane was momentarily dazed. The Scyphozoa let out it's signature cry before escaping, preventing him from any further probing. One thing was certain to him by that point; for whatever reason the visions he saw were from the perspective of Aelita's mother. There were too many questions piling up for Zhane to make sense of it at the moment, so he turned his attention to Aelita. She was just starting to get up and walk towards him, meaning Jeremie cured her paralysis.

"You saw something this time too, didn't you?" Aelita asked him.

Zhane simply nodded. "We should deal with the tower first before we worry about that."

"You're right, we can talk about that later." Aelita agreed, and the two started running in the direction of the activated tower. The two shortly arrived at the tower, but before Aelita could enter the tower it's red aura reverted to blue all on it's own. "Jeremie, what just happened to the tower?" Aelita asked.

"I'm not sure, but it looks like it deactivated itself." He replied.

"Why would Xana deactivate his own tower?" Zhane mused aloud. "I guess it doesn't matter, we're done here for now right Einstein?"

"Yeah, let me just materialize you two real quick."

"So what was that all about?" Zhane asked once he stepped out of the elevator.

"I'm not quite sure if I'm honest." Jeremie replied. "Xana has done something similar to this before, but not quite to this level. If I'm being optimistic, I'd say he lost control of the tower."

"You mean he's getting weaker?" Yumi guessed.

"It certainly is a possibility, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much. There's a chance having to keep a physical form is taking away a good portion of his power, that coupled with his new monster developments might be putting too large of a drain on him. But it's only a possibility, I wouldn't put too much faith in it."

"Yeah there's no way that's happening with out luck." Odd quipped. "If anything he probably just tried to trap Aelita and failed."

"That's a pretty good guess Odd, I was thinking that too." Aelita said. "In any case we should all head back before it gets too late, even if we don't have class tomorrow." She turned to Jeremie before asking "Are you going to stay here and work for awhile?".

Jeremie shook his head and stood up. "I need some quality rest for a change, I can't keep working late into the night." Aelita smiled at this as the group headed to the elevator. When they arrived back at Kadic Zhane went off on his own, announcing that he had something to take care of. Aelita had meant to ask him about his vision, but knew she would have a chance later.

"What do you think he's got going on?" Ulrich asked the group as they headed to the rec room.

"He's probably hanging out with that friend of his, what's her name again?" William responded as he collapsed into a chair.

"It's Gracelynn, but she goes by Grace." Odd answered, sitting across from him.

"And you know this how?" Ulrich smirked.

"I try to know as many of the girls in the school as possible Ulrich, don't you know that?" Odd responded with a grin.

"Yeah I bet you already asked her out, haven't you?"

Odd shook his head. "Nah, I know she'd say no. She's extremely shy, so there's no way she'd say yes."

"Oh, does that mean there's someone that not even you can date?" William teased.

"Shut it! Cmon, I'll play you in a game of ping pong, unless you're too scared to face me." Smirking William stood up and followed Odd.

* * *

Zhane shut the door to his room and made sure it was locked. Heading over to his laptop he sat down and booted it up, waiting. So many questions were racing through his mind. Why was the Scyphozoa giving him visions of Aelita's parents? Why were they from her mother's perspective? And, most curious of all, why did her mother sound just like the pink haired woman he met? There was no way they were the same person, too many facts just didn't add up. But the facts also didn't add up for Zhane to have hallucinated the woman. Unless this was all a large trick pulled of by Xana, none of it made sense. After his laptop Zhane started typing furiously. He had heard about how Jeremie was able to contact Aelita when she was on Lyoko, so he did some research through Jeremie's notes. With any luck, he'd be able to replicate those results.

After a few moments a video feed appeared on his screen. On it, the face of Xana appeared, smirking at him. "Oh, isn't this a surprise?" Xana started. "I believe this is the first time you've contacted me. To what do I owe this occasion?"

"Cut the act Xana." Zhane began. "You know what I'm here for."

Xana raised an eyebrow at Zhane. "Do I now? I suppose you're wanting to know about why I used the tower that way, and I'm sure you know I won't tell you the answer."

Zhane was confused at this. Did Xana really not know about the visions he was having? "That's not what I wanted to ask. Whenever I try to absorb energy from your Scyphozoa I have visions, visions of Aelita's parents."

If Xana was surprised at this it didn't show. "Is that so?" He questioned. "Well as interesting a revelation as that is, what would I have to do with it? You know that I have nothing to do with Franz Hopper anymore, especially since he's not here anymore."

Zhane growled in frustration. "Those visions I only get from your monster, and they're from the perspective of Aelita's mother, mind telling me why that is?"

Xana seemed to laugh at this, but it sounded hollow and forced; fitting for a computer program. "If I did know anything about it, do you think I would willingly share it with you? Whatever notion you have you should just disregard. Both of her parents are gone, end of story. Now, I have some more meaningful work to get back to." With that the video feed closed and Zhane was left by himself. Could the visions really have nothing to do with Xana? He shook his head and left his room, more confused than ever.

On Lyoko Xana smirked in victory. How simple it was to manipulate humans, especially ones you once shared a mind with. Of course he knew about the visions, he knew about them the moment Zhane first touched the Scyphozoa. They were of no detriment to him, and seemed to cause a great deal of stress to the boy, so he let them continue. Unless he digs to too important memories, that is how it would stay. Xana was surprised he wasn't curious about the tower though, although that just meant he was more distracted than usual. It was a simple ploy, no matter what the outcome he would be victorious in the end. If he had obtained the keys to Lyoko that would be that, but if not then he could rely on Zhane's curious nature to seek out the visions. Those visions hold a key deep within them, an integral piece of Xana that had gone missing. He wasn't completely sure of what it was; there were too many variables with the backup and transfer into a physical form to narrow it down, but he did know that whatever Zhane was seeing would lead to it's discovery. If only he could view those visions himself, he would have solved it already.

Heading deeper into Sector 5 Xana delegated his thoughts somewhere else. There was much work to be done, on many tasks. Opening a data terminal in front of him, he input various codes and formulas as we walked. Upon reaching a large, circular room he stopped and gave the terminal his full attention. Typing out a few last bits of data he watched the space in front of him. Slowly, ones and zeroes swirled in the air in front of him, stretching out and taking form. Eventually the numbers stopped swirling, and a humanoid figure dropped out of the air in front of him. The first prototype test had started off well, of course there was much more work to be done before it'd be fully complete, but just taking form was a momentous occasion. Smirking he helped the figure stand, if these tests were successful there would be no stopping him.

* * *

 **And there's another one! Just a small little transition chapter between what the first arcs will be. Although not much might have directly happened here, it sets up much of what is to come. Just what is Xana planning, and what do these visions mean exactly? Wait and see!**

 **As always feel free to review as I greatly appreciate them! Until next time!**


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